“Has Anyone Seen My Hull Number”
Fellow Woody Boater Brock Horsley has a wonderful model 99 and is trying to find his hull number stamped into the wood on, well the hull. And this has taken a while and worth the effort since.. Wait for it…Here is Brocks note to us.
“I have a Model 99 that I suspect may be the first (#14000) but I have looked all over and haven’t found a hull ID to confirm it. Walstrom Marine in Harbor Springs MI looked for it as well before I bought it and they couldn’t locate it either.
I asked were he had looked and Dang, this could be a Children’s book. Okay I added a bit of Dr Seuss to it.
I have looked behind the seats, I have looked on stringers. I have looked under the removable floor sections , I have looked here, and over there.
I will continue to look more closely and with a mirror to help look in more nooks and crannies. Thanks for looking into this. I will keep looking.
This is a copy of a screen grab from Woody Boater when we did a week of Model 99 stories. November 2011
I have found a Water Wonderland member that remembered this boat quite well, was always very fond of it, he knew Robert Smith and his wife and he has boat show and ACBS directory documents as well as more photos of it from I think the 80’s and 90’s he is going to find.
Below are some examples of hard to find hull numbers.
Hull number on BABY GAL
Stinky Hull number apeared after some sanding
On the stringer under 8 gallons of bilge paint
HERE IS A STORY WE DID ON PROTOTYPE MODEL 100 Which may help.
Okay, now I am gonna have to down to the basement and find the past stories on all the Model 99’s we did. AHHHHHHHHHH, It’s not lost, its just someplace on a server. I was scared this may happen. And after 16 years, stuff like this. is starting to drive me nuts. STAY TUNED, we are trying to create a new way so this stuff is out there.
Interesting story about a Michigan boat. I hope you can confirm the hull number. If Pete Henkel restored her, maybe Art or some of the Michigan gang old guard will remember her.
Greg, I can’t remember ship!
I do remember seeing the boat, but don’t know anything about the hull #. I see from the photo’s that it has (had?) a Michigan Historical registration number MC 0042 HW.
If I’m not mistaken, ALL of the CC hulls have hull number stamped in lots of places as this is what the worker bees used to keep track of which hull they were working on.
Check the forward ends of the hatches, usually stamped in the frames.
That boat is just too cool! The story and mystery is pretty cool as well! Good luck with the search!
OK, so yesterday you were adding “Razz-Ma-Tazz” to your Toyota and today is a story about a boat once named “Ra-Ma-Taz”.
I see a theme for the week!
How creative are you feeling?
Cruisers have numbers EVERYWHERE, but they aren’t always the same number.
See!
Back when I first purchased my 1941 CC model 101, 1998, I knew nothing about the wood boat world and therefore had a lot of questions. One of the first people I talked with was Mr. Wilson and he introduced me to a very nice gentlemen that went by the name Mo.
After realizing that one of the main things I needed to identify what boat I had was the hull number, so one of my first questions to Mo was where do I find the hull number. Fortunately mind was right where it was suppose to be, on top of the port side stringer just behind the engine chock but in our discussion he mentioned that there were some cases where the number got stamped a little forward of where it was suppose to be and ended up under the engine chock. You may have already looked there but I thought it might be worth mentioning.
Yep, still looking through my parents piles of old photos to find some details!
Bob and Betty Smith were the owners and the original name of the boat when he had it was “Raz-Ma-Taz”. At the time, their home was in Harbor Springs in Birchwood.
I’m sure their children may also have some additional info and pictures too.
The absolute best story I remember is that Bob was having the boat restored unbeknownst to Betty. She had been wanting a fur coat but Bob had said it was too much money.
Lo and behold, when the boat was finished, there was an article in the local paper about it and Betty saw it.
The next day, she went out and bought herself a new fur coat!!!!
They were a wonderful couple and good friends of my parents.
I’m sure one of the MI gang might remember who restored it for Bob?
Good story. A little mystery, and a lot of history here. Keep us posted. I feel some Milk being poured.
Great story, Matt – and Brock, I’m on the hunt here in Michigan. More info to come…!
Thanks so much Matt for putting this out. It was certainly a surprise to see this as the topic of the day. Also thanks to the Woodyboater community for your input and insights.. Will keep looking and developing this story with the help of the Water Wonderland chapter with Jeff’s help. I will keep Matt updated.
Thus far I have documentation from Walstrom marine’s service records that this boat was Raz Ma Taz. If Robert Smith truly registered it as #14000 and this is accurate then this would not only be the first Model 99, prototype, but also would be the first Chris Craft under 20ft long ever built I believe.
And here’s the page with their membership info.
Well, thanks to help from fellow Water Wonderland Chapter / ACBS member, Rob Schantz – and his archive of past directories – here are some photos from the 1990 edition. You’ll find the Smiths listed with Raz-Ma-Taz – and hull #14000. Now we may never know (at least yet…) where the Smiths got that number from, but it would stand to reason that it wasn’t merely invented out of thin air – and is very likely the true hull number. Now, the search for evidence on the hull continues…
!
For boats with an original engine, one could work backwards and find the hull that shows that engine as being installed?
If a boat has an original engine, one could work backwards and find the hull that shows that engine as being installed?
I had a similar issue with my 1937 19 ft Chris Craft Custom when I first became its caretaker. It was a pattern boat found by Dick Dow still floating in Seattle’s lake Union. After two weeks of searching I found # 48248 Underneath the front engine mount of the replacement Chrysler Crown that was in the boat. From the Mariners Museum it originally came with a Chris Craft K.
Does anyone out there by chance have Antique Boating Magazine vol 1 #2 April 1974? that apparently had the boat pictured in it? I was able to get the first photo from 1991 Classic Boating Magazine themselves..
Took a look through my Water Wonderland Chapter/ACBS archives tonight. Lo and behold – in the Spring 1990 edition of the WWC’s Waterline magazine – there was a member profile article about Robert & Elizabeth Smith, and their 1930 CC Model 99. While not an actual hull number stamped on the boat type of confirmation yet, it certainly appears that Raz-Ma-Taz is very likely hull #14000.
It’s not my turn to speak for her, but I will bet Rachel and her Chris-Craft Services team at the Mariner’s Museum in VA would take on the challenge by working backwards through her incredible library of hull cards. You have the vessel’s model and year, and there weren’t many of them built.
She’s sleuthed some tough challenges for me.
Rachel’s email is chriscraft@marinersmuseum.org.