Boat in a field!!!

This is a boat I have been lusting over for quite some time. *I would likely never own something like this simply because it is wood. *But what a beauty she is!!! *Does anyone have any idea what kind of boat it may be???

John--- While you would have to research this I have seen a couple of boats in this area that looked very much like this. They were both Hacker Craft.

Thanks Marin. I will give them a look. This boat appears to be about 40ft...give or take a few.

There are also vintage boat groups, like for Chris Craft and the like, that you might send your photos to. Even if it's not one of the boats they represent, they may recognize it. Same as the folks in a Model A club can usually tell you a lot about the other makes of that era, too.

I wonder if there are any marks on or near the transom? My GB has the mfg numbers on the upper corner on the starboard side stamped into the fiber glass. Perhaps there is a similar "plate" on the wood transom.

I don't believe HINs were in use back when this boat was built but if you can get inside there might be a builder's plate on the helm consol or thereabouts.

After banging about a bit on the internet I have very serious doubts about the information I was given about the cruisers I saw up here being Hacker Craft. Hacker seems to have made a handful of small cabin runabouts (as did Gar Wood) but they were pretty much exclusively the open cockpit runabouts we''re all familiar with. So I would regard that info with extreme skepticism.

Another avenue of research for you would be to send your photos to the editors of Wooden Boat Magazine. They or someone on their staff might recognize the lines. But it's a pretty common type of design from the 40s and 50s and maybe even the 60s. It doesn't look like the sort of thing Chris Craft would have done but there are dozens if not hundreds of boatbuilders who were capable of this sort of design back then.

Pure speculation on my part but back then boats of this type didn't seem to have moved too far from their birthplace unless they were production boats from an outfit with an established dealer base, like Chris Craft. So pehaps it's from one of the Gulf boat builders back then?

Most of these older boats had the name on the aft end of the cabin. This guy looks a lot like a Mathews, Wheeler, Nassau, Colonial or Richardson. My best guess is Colonial if it's a production boat. It looks like some of the Carolina boats as well and I'm guessing it's prolly a custom built boat from that area. Also quite unusual for the 50s (and I'm quite sure it's a 50s boat) is the reverse sheer. Looks like it's fairly close to the ground.

Not sure about the reverse sheer, Eric. It might be the nature of the camera angle. In the second, side-on shot, the forward sheer appears almost straight. The downward curve up near the bow appears to me to be caused the fact the camera's still a bit lower than the sheerline, which up front is curving away from the lens, hence the appearance of a reverse sheer. I may well be wrong but that's the way it appears to me.....

Well Marin I can't remember any other boat from this era that had a reverse sheer. I admit it's subtle but It's there. I agree w you it's not a Hacker. As far as I know they all were hard chine.

nomadwilly wrote:
Well Marin I can't remember any other boat from this era that had a reverse sheer.

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*Well, I wasn't there so wouldn't know myself * The PT boats of WWII all had reverse sheers but they weren't exactly commercial cabin*cruisers......

nomadwilly wrote:
Well Marin I can't remember any other boat from this era that had a reverse sheer.

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*Unless they have been very well cared for and refastened a couple of times, most of them probably do by now, it's called hogging.

nomadwilly wrote:
Most of these older boats had the name on the aft end of the cabin. This guy looks a lot like a Mathews, Wheeler, Nassau, Colonial or Richardson. My best guess is Colonial if it's a production boat. It looks like some of the Carolina boats as well and I'm guessing it's prolly a custom built boat from that area. Also quite unusual for the 50s (and I'm quite sure it's a 50s boat) is the reverse sheer. Looks like it's fairly close to the ground.
It does not look much like a Matthews or a Richardson.* Possibly a Wheeler. Never seen a Nassau or Colonial. Don't think its a reverse sheer.

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-- Edited by dwhatty on Tuesday 4th of October 2011 05:17:59 AM

Rick,

I think the expression "hogged" applies to the keel. But I suppose it could apply to any warped part of a boat but in the case of the keel it's an issue of too much support under the center of the bottom and the ends sag pushing the center of the boat up causing the "hogged keel". Never heard of hogged anything else. Perhaps it's an east coast thing.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/

Post your picture here and you'll get a quick answer. These guys are pretty sharp.

*

Ken

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