Not A Whirlwind, But What Iz It?
Very nice deck lines
Fellow Woody Boater Michael Schneider sent us what we thought would be an easy What Iz It. It looks like a Whirlwind, but some details just didn’t look right. At first we thought is might be a Whirlwind hull with a home made deck thing.
I dont think the seat is a factory item.
But if you look closer it has a slightly different hull boat flair. And the deck doesn’t look homemade, and the normal vin number isnt there.
No Number
There is one but not in the Whirlwind area. Now, we do know that Whirlwind made a ton of hulls for other brands. And this boat is from Maryland. The home of Whirlwind. So.. We ask the experts of the comment section to solve this one for Michael! What Iz It?
Also a very cool trailer
My first guess is a modern craft due to the flare at the bow. I’m not sure if U.S. molded shapes made any hulls with that much flare if they did then maybe its a “Clyde”
How about a Wagemaker/ Wolverine. Built in Grand Rapids Mi.
They had a lot of different types
Usually, a U.S. Molded Shape hull will have a small copper tag nailed to the inside of the bow stem. At least the ones I have seen do.
I would check the Speltz book that includes molded plywood manufacturers.
Lastly, you could possible use the steering wheel to identify the age of the boat. It looks like a Wilcox Crittenden (WC) from the early 1950s.
If you are really ambitious, you could measure the name plate fastener holes and match them to known molded plywood brands nameplates (Wagemaker, Whirlwind, Skipper-Craft (Maryland company, not Holland, MI), Yellow Jacket, etc.)
Not sure what happen to my first post but here it goes again. it could be from International Shipping see http://www.paceship.org/plycraft/history.asp. I am working on one right now that I picked up for $100 cdn or $68.77 USD. It came with a 65 merc. It has been sitting in a barn for 25 years so for my area for the word that had very limited history with wood boats it is a big find that was only 1 hour from me.
Not sure what happen to my first post but here it goes again. it could be from International Shipping see the Paceship web site look under history tab. I am working on one right now that I picked up for $100 cdn or $68.77 USD. It came with a 65 merc. It has been sitting in a barn for 25 years so for my area for the word that had very limited history with wood boats it is a big find that was only 1 hour from me.
+1 on the Clyde
The steering wheel looks to be a Crosley, so I’d guess the hull to be early to mid 50’s. But the angle of the bow says later and there weren’t many that used a cutwater. Delta, Mac Bay, Yellow Jacket and Cadillac were a few and not on all their models.
possibly a gator trailer but the winch towers that I have seen went from open truss style to solid I beam in the 50’s. Neither look like this one. Mine has a serial – model number stamped in the round tube on the starboard side just after the 90 degree bend headed aft.
Looking at where the oar locks are located, either one was expected to row backwards, or to sit on the midship deck while rowing. Maybe that deck was not original?
That number looks more like its length
14-1/2 FT – PETPEL. for what its worth.
another possible choice would be dunphy. don’t forget us molded shapes, wagemaker and others would sell the hulls bare for the customer to finish. if they wanted they could also choose from a list of different deck and seating configurations put together as a kit for the do it yourselfer. wilcox and attwood were the popular brands of hdwe used.
Steering wheel is a dead ringer for my old WeldWood, and also shelf knees under covering boards.
Drawing a blank at the minute but there was a company in Nova Scotia if I remember right that shipped out bare molded plywood hulls to anyone who wanted to make boats. I had one but only for a short time. I believe that was where the Morehouse boat company on Cayuga lake got their molded hulls from.
I’d like to have a closer look at the details. I can’t imagine that the hull itself was not molded by Whirlwind. It may have been a prototype hull that was abandoned or sold at auction when they liquidated. It seems far-fetched to think that someone would go to all the trouble to build a hot-molded hull and that there is only one… that’s been found.. but you would think with the experts here on WB that someone would know.
Thanks all for the input on the brand, I’ll keep up the research and let all know what I find…