Mr.Stuart
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2007
- Messages
- 701
Bare with me here, this post might be somewhat long winded.
I’ve been looking for a 12 foot riveted aluminum boat, and have been following a lot of ads on the internet, and even did some searching through Google to see how long aluminum boats have been manufactured. It’s been for some interesting reading, but the information has been very limited.
Before I drag this post out further, here’s my thoughts and views so far, and I am going to have some questions at the end of this post in hopes that some of you more experienced people might be able to enlighten me somewhat.
I have an old 12-foot trailer that I’ve completely stripped out, and am in the process of rebuilding, it’s almost done, but just like my search on the 12 foot boats, I’ve not been able to find a single bit of information on the trailer through the internet, I’m sure it’s pretty old, my guess would be the 1960’s
The year of the trailer kind of got me going in waiting to find an old boat, the older the better, I have learned that by reading the last two numbers in the serial number will give you the year of the hull, and I have looked at a few for sale locally and have not been able to find anything older then about 1965, so my first question is, how long have manufactures been putting the year the hull was built at the end of the serial number? How long ago did they start doing that?
The other thing I’ve noticed, is that the older the boat, the less likely the person selling it is going to know anything about it, I see lots of ads through craigslist that say something to the effect of “for sale, 12 foot aluminum boat, unknown year or make, no title, first $200 takes it home” ask the seller any specific questions about the boat, and you get an “I don’t know” this makes it kind of hard to find what your looking for because your pretty much forced to go look at the thing If you want any of your questions answered.
I did see some pretty neat looking old boats through a search of google pictures, but I’m guessing that the only way those people know what they have is because the manufactures emblem was still on the side of the boat when they bought it, which brings to mind another question, how many old boats are floating around out there that no longer have the emblems on them for what ever reason? I can see why a lot of people selling those old rowboats have no idea what they have.
So my questions are these, how long have they been making 12-foot aluminum rowboats? I see small outboards for sale that date back to the 30’s were they making aluminum boats back then? Maybe I’m not searching the internet correctly or something but the information I’ve been able to find has been very limited.
Was a runabout always something with a covered bow and a windshield, something like that in an old 12 foot boat might be kind of neat to own if one could be found, or have the 12 footers always been open boats with tiller steering and the throttle controlled at the outboard in one form or another?
My goal is to find the oldest aluminum boat I can find, and run it with the oldest outboard I can put on it, the prices of the older 12 footers certainly aren’t anything that’s going to break the bank, I’m seeing lots of stuff for under $500, the stuff I read on the net about some of the older boats people have bought tell stories of finding them at garage sales or estate sales and the like for amounts that don’t go much higher then 2 or 3 hundred, or maybe a little more.
to the people selling these older boats, I'm going to assume to them, it's just an old ugly beat up boat, in their mind, that they probably got 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th hand, or something they picked up at ..well, some garage sale along the way, so they don't see it as an antique, or a classic, it seems they see it as just a junky ugly old boat and they just want it taken off their hands.
to me, there's no greater pride that a person can have then to take something old like that, and set sail down the river, as you putt along sitting in front of your 1935 outboard you picked up from some guy on craigslist for 100 bucks, think of the 80 plus years of untold history behind it, that's worth something in my book.
What’s your thoughts and opinions on all this? Enlighten me; my enquiring mind wants more info.
Stuart
I’ve been looking for a 12 foot riveted aluminum boat, and have been following a lot of ads on the internet, and even did some searching through Google to see how long aluminum boats have been manufactured. It’s been for some interesting reading, but the information has been very limited.
Before I drag this post out further, here’s my thoughts and views so far, and I am going to have some questions at the end of this post in hopes that some of you more experienced people might be able to enlighten me somewhat.
I have an old 12-foot trailer that I’ve completely stripped out, and am in the process of rebuilding, it’s almost done, but just like my search on the 12 foot boats, I’ve not been able to find a single bit of information on the trailer through the internet, I’m sure it’s pretty old, my guess would be the 1960’s
The year of the trailer kind of got me going in waiting to find an old boat, the older the better, I have learned that by reading the last two numbers in the serial number will give you the year of the hull, and I have looked at a few for sale locally and have not been able to find anything older then about 1965, so my first question is, how long have manufactures been putting the year the hull was built at the end of the serial number? How long ago did they start doing that?
The other thing I’ve noticed, is that the older the boat, the less likely the person selling it is going to know anything about it, I see lots of ads through craigslist that say something to the effect of “for sale, 12 foot aluminum boat, unknown year or make, no title, first $200 takes it home” ask the seller any specific questions about the boat, and you get an “I don’t know” this makes it kind of hard to find what your looking for because your pretty much forced to go look at the thing If you want any of your questions answered.
I did see some pretty neat looking old boats through a search of google pictures, but I’m guessing that the only way those people know what they have is because the manufactures emblem was still on the side of the boat when they bought it, which brings to mind another question, how many old boats are floating around out there that no longer have the emblems on them for what ever reason? I can see why a lot of people selling those old rowboats have no idea what they have.
So my questions are these, how long have they been making 12-foot aluminum rowboats? I see small outboards for sale that date back to the 30’s were they making aluminum boats back then? Maybe I’m not searching the internet correctly or something but the information I’ve been able to find has been very limited.
Was a runabout always something with a covered bow and a windshield, something like that in an old 12 foot boat might be kind of neat to own if one could be found, or have the 12 footers always been open boats with tiller steering and the throttle controlled at the outboard in one form or another?
My goal is to find the oldest aluminum boat I can find, and run it with the oldest outboard I can put on it, the prices of the older 12 footers certainly aren’t anything that’s going to break the bank, I’m seeing lots of stuff for under $500, the stuff I read on the net about some of the older boats people have bought tell stories of finding them at garage sales or estate sales and the like for amounts that don’t go much higher then 2 or 3 hundred, or maybe a little more.
to the people selling these older boats, I'm going to assume to them, it's just an old ugly beat up boat, in their mind, that they probably got 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th hand, or something they picked up at ..well, some garage sale along the way, so they don't see it as an antique, or a classic, it seems they see it as just a junky ugly old boat and they just want it taken off their hands.
to me, there's no greater pride that a person can have then to take something old like that, and set sail down the river, as you putt along sitting in front of your 1935 outboard you picked up from some guy on craigslist for 100 bucks, think of the 80 plus years of untold history behind it, that's worth something in my book.
What’s your thoughts and opinions on all this? Enlighten me; my enquiring mind wants more info.
Stuart
