c.1970 13-footer Provenance and Restoration

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Vibemanrts
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Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2019 12:36 pm

c.1970 13-footer Provenance and Restoration

Postby Vibemanrts » Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:09 pm

I'm finishing up restoring and modifying a c.1970 13-footer. This boat was purchased by my Father in 2000. He said that at that time it "looked good" with no significant [damage]. It had been restored by the seller who had owned it since c.1997. My father also received a title to the boat that listed it as a 1980 and had a hull identification number for a 1980 vessel. After using the boat for about eight years in a lake--sometimes left in the lake and sometimes pulled up on shore-- he gave the 13-footer to my brother who stored it on a trailer in his backyard until I rescued it in December 2019. You can see from the pictures below that the c.1970 13-footer had not weathered well.

Interior as started.jpg
Fig. 1. Interior as Started
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Bottom as started.jpg
Fig. 2. Bottom as Started
Bottom as started.jpg (69.02 KiB) Viewed 2736 times


Bottom 2 as started.jpg
Fig. 3. Transom view as Started
Bottom 2 as started.jpg (50.11 KiB) Viewed 2736 times


ASIDE: I now find the black part of the rubrail is short. I'm not ready to replace the whole assembly or even just the insert at this time. I am hoping someone has a few feet laying around that I could splice in until I end up replacing it.

jimh
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Re: c.1970 13-footer Provenance

Postby jimh » Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:20 pm

Q1: How do you conclude the boat is a c.1970 if the hull identification number (HIN) says 1980?

Q2: What is the hull identification number?

If the boat were made prior to 1972 it probably only has a stencil number, not a HIN.

The black vinyl rub rail insert becomes much more pliant when heated.

Q3: How short is the black vinyl insert when cold?

FIgure 2 and Figure 3 show areas of missing gel coat on the hull bottom and transom. Those areas with no gel coat could have had water ingress and then broke off in winter with the freezing temperatures. You cannot keep a Boston Whaler hull in the water all the time without any epoxy sealing paint on the bottom to keep water out of the laminate.

PS. If ten years ago my Dad had a 13-footer and gave it to my brother (instead of me) there would have been a lot of ugly Thanksgiving dinners for the past ten years in our family--unless he gave me that OUTRAGE already.

Vibemanrts
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Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2019 12:36 pm

c. 1970 13-footer Restoration

Postby Vibemanrts » Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:26 pm

[Moderator’s note: two threads about the same boat are combined into one thread. Please do not start separate threads to illustrate the same boat before and after renovation.]

To refinish the hull [of the c.1970 13-foot hull described earlier] we used West System Epoxy, silica, Microballons, fiberglass (in various thicknesses), wooden dowels, foam board, Epifanes two-part primer, and two-part yacht coating in Boston Whaler blue.

Bottom-Completed.png
Fig. 4. Completed Bottom
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Interior Completed.jpg
Fig. 5. Completed Interior
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I wanted more storage and a casting or standing platform. We added a compartment just aft of the original compartment. My Dad had a hatch cover from a 1981 OUTRAGE he once owned, and we built the new compartment around the dimensions of that cover.

New compartment.jpg
Fig. 6. New Compartment
New compartment.jpg (35.87 KiB) Viewed 2717 times

jimh
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Re: c.1970 13-footer Provenance and Restoration

Postby jimh » Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:40 pm

That boat has made quite a comeback. Your work is very nice and may inspire others with old hulls in similarly less-than-new condition.

That you have pictures from before and from after the work enables us to see what was accomplished.

That a Boston Whaler boat stays in the family for two generations or more is always good to hear about. The 13-foot hull seems especially likely to be inherited by the younger generation.

Vibemanrts
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2019 12:36 pm

Re: c.1970 13-footer Provenance

Postby Vibemanrts » Tue Mar 30, 2021 2:16 pm

jimh wrote:Q1: How do you conclude the boat is a c.1970 if the hull identification number (HIN) says 1980?

Q2: What is the hull identification number?

If the boat were made prior to 1972 it probably only has a stencil number, not a HIN.

The black vinyl rub rail insert becomes much more pliant when heated.

Q3: How short is the black vinyl insert when cold?

FIgure 2 and Figure 3 show areas of missing gel coat on the hull bottom and transom. Those areas with no gel coat could have had water ingress and then broke off in winter with the freezing temperatures. You cannot keep a Boston Whaler hull in the water all the time without any epoxy sealing paint on the bottom to keep water out of the laminate.

PS. If ten years ago my Dad had a 13-footer and gave it to my brother (instead of me) there would have been a lot of ugly Thanksgiving dinners for the past ten years in our family--unless he gave me that OUTRAGE already.


A1: Looking at all of the model year pictures this boat did not look anything like the 1980 13 footer, it looked exactly like the 1970 (and earlier) 13 footers.

A2: This boat did not have a HIN or Stencil visible when my Father purchased it. The title he received with the vessel showed an identification number of BWCL3376B780 and a year of 1980. My Father then scribed that number into the boat.

A3: The black rubrail is approximately 6 inches short from the end of the track on one side and even with the track on the other side. This insert was never folded around the back of the transom. When replaced with new I will install it around the back of the transom.

Not to worry, our Thanksgivings were fine. I'm already in the will for the Outrage and the truck to pull it!

jimh
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Re: c.1970 13-footer Provenance and Restoration

Postby jimh » Tue Mar 30, 2021 5:15 pm

Let me have a look at that HIN, BWCL3376B780.

The first step is to identify which of three formats was used for this encoding of the HIN. The format that fits best is "NEW FORMAT as early as January 1984 and mandatory after August 1984." We decode the HIN according to that format:

BWC = the MIC for the manufacturer, and BWC is Boston Whaler

L3367 = five character code; we will look more closely at this in a moment

B = the month of production code, with B indicating February

7 = year of production; this makes no sense because the model year as indicated in the next two characters is 1980. There is no way that a "7" can be a production year for a 1980; only a "9" for 1979 or a "0" for 1980 could be a production year for a model year 1980.

80 = model year, or clearly 1980.

As a result, the HIN appears to be incorrect, that is, the HIN does not conform to the 1984 format. And since the HIN proclaims to be a 1980, it obviously could not be a something used in the 1984 or newer format.

Let's try again to decode the HIN. But before we do, let's look at the production sequence code, L3367. The sequence for production codes for 13-footers has no mention of any sequence beginning with "L". The 13-footer production codes begin with A,B,C, skip D, and continue with E1000 through E3999, a sequence good for 54,000 boats. This five-character code starting with "L" is not on any chart for Boston Whaler 13-footers. In fact, there are ZERO five-character production sequences for any model that start with "L" and four digits.

Looking at pre-1984 coding, the HIN cannot be in the "MODEL YEAR FORMAT prior to August 1984" because there is no "M" as the ninth character.

This leaves only the "STRAIGHT YEAR FORMAT prior to August 1984", but that is not a good fit because it requires the characters in the position for encoding month-of-production to be in the range 01 to 12, and in this supposed HIN those characters are "B7". And this would, again, indicate a model year of 1980, which is not likely given the notched transom.

I have been so far able to decode every HIN that has been mentioned as having been seen on a Boston Whaler according to one of the three formats, but this HIN fits none of them. I think the HIN is bogus. Or someone did a very poor job of reading the HIN off the hull.

jimh
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Re: c.1970 13-footer Provenance and Restoration

Postby jimh » Tue Mar 30, 2021 5:18 pm

The notched transom tends to define this 13-footer as a pre-1972 model. The blue interior is also a good indicator. We have not seen the bow, but I am sure it is not the smirked-bow of the 1972 boats. I agree that this boat was probably a c.1970 boat or older.

Vibemanrts
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Re: c.1970 13-footer Provenance and Restoration

Postby Vibemanrts » Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:01 am

jimh wrote:The notched transom tends to define this 13-footer as a pre-1972 model. The blue interior is also a good indicator. We have not seen the bow, but I am sure it is not the smirked-bow of the 1972 boats. I agree that this boat was probably a c.1970 boat or older.


Definitely not a smirked bow

Bow.jpg
No smirk in this bow
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