Thanks for the message, Ray. Yup, I was out of town fishing. Got one lousy rainbow but had a great time with friends in Long Beach, WA, just north of Astoria. Even ran into a fellow TFer in a KK42 on the hard in Ilwaco, WA, Pete and Kat on Points North III. (Photos below)
Hi!
My family and I will be joining the trawler lifestyle soon. I have so many questions but I'll start with one. I put a deposit on a 1981 Californian 36 trawler dependent on the mechanical survey. I can't find information on this model.
It's not a 34 LRC or a 38 trawler. It looks like the 38 but is 36'4" LOA, 13'4" Beam, and 28,000 displacement with twin 3208s.
I found one mention in the Jan 1981 Motorboating and Sailing Magazine. It just has the specs. I've included a picture.
The only actual vessel I've found is the trawler I'm hopefully purchasing when it was listed two years ago.
Does anyone know anything about this model?
Your boat may be a variant of Edelweis' boat, who I invited to comment via PM in case he can help. I think his is a 1976 37' LRC Aft Cabin and later models were called 38's. Hopefully he'll have a port side shot to compare. Can you include a link to the listing here so we can see more photos?
Marshall boats originally built the Californians, sold them to Wellcraft, and then bought them back from Wellcraft. Here:
https://atlanticyachtandship.com/californian-yachts-history/
And back in 2008, on another forum a commentor calling himself FlyWright - a moniker rather famous on this forum - appears to have owned a 1977 Californian 34 when he posted this:
BoaterEd - Wellcraft Californian
Perhaps our FlyWright will chime in.
Wow! I forgot about that post on another site so long ago! That was a great boating site for a long time until it wasn't. Then I found this place and haven't left.
There is some debate about the timing of the sale to Wellcraft. Some sources I read say 1980 and some say 1981. The best way I know of telling if a boat was a Marshall build is the first 3 letters of the HIN. If it's California built under Jules Marshall, they're JCM...J for Jules, M for Marshall and C for California. I was told this first hand by Gil Marshall on speakerphone with Jules listening from the next desk.
Thanks! Just checked the serial. Marshall Boat Company, 362281. So a 1981 36 ft, built a year before wellcraft purchased the company.
Normally the HIN follows a pattern of numbers, and sometimes letters, identifying the MFR, boat length, hull number of that series, build month/year. Are there other numbers or letters in your HIN? For example, mine is JCM034010277. That's Jules Marshall California built, 34 ft, HIN #1, Feb 1977.
Most boat lengths are in 2 digits but mine is 3. Maybe they were overly optimistic early in the program...or else maybe they standardized their HIN format deleting the 3 digit length when they realized they'd never build boats bigger than 99'.
Also, I don't know if the date represents build completion, launch date or some other milestone date in the construction process.
Good luck with the inspections and purchase. Anything new to report?
Hopefully, we'll be able to welcome you to the Californian Club. We're a fun group, but you'll have to buy the first round as a newbie.
