1983 Wellcraft Starwind 15, Texas, not for sale

Back in the '60s and '70s the Chrysler Corporation had a Marine division that built sailboats and power boats. The small sailboats were designed by Rod Macalpine-Downey and Dick Gibbs. The two most popular boats that Chrysler built during that period were the Buccaneer and the Mutineer. There were close to 6000 Mutineers built out of Chrysler's Plano, TX plant. In 1980, when Chrysler re-organized under the guidance of Lee Iacocca, one of the first things to go was the Marine division. The molds for the boats were initially sold to a group that called themselves Texas Marine Industries, but they quickly sold to Wellscraft Marine. Wellscraft built the Mutineer from 1982 through 1983 and they did make some modifications to the boat. These modifications were made without approval from the designers so their license to build the boat was pulled. That was not the only reason the license was pulled, there were also royalty issues. The molds were then sold to Gloucester Yachts that built them for a year then they sold their whole business to Cardinal Yachts that owned the molds up until August of 2005 when they sold to Nickels Boatworks who is our new licensed builder who plans to brings the Mutineer and Buccaneer back into production. Nickels Boatworks is also the current builder of the Lightning, Snipe, and Rebel class sailboats.

The modifications that Wellscraft made are still part of the current design. They were made to strenthen the area under the mast. This area is a weak spot on most of the old Chryslers. The fix to this weakness is the installation of a compression post right under the mast step area. It is a very simple repair. I have done it to mine.

With 6000 of these babies built and sold, there are alot of them just sitting around waiting to get back on the water.

Written by Rey Garza