Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

How old is my boat and where did it come from?

Just curious if there are some gurus out there who might have a formula or algorithm out there for determining where my boat actually came from and where it was made. I have a good sense it's a mid 60's don hill style or Keith Steele style but have no way of really knowing. Any thoughts? Can send pics if interested. Thanks in advance.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Fletcher on June 11, 2012 at 7:08am

Keith Steele usually placed his nameplate near or on the transom. Is there evidence such a plate has been there? Rick, is the photo of the nameplate on your post from one of Keith's boats shown at the show? Note the zip code. Zip codes did not become mandatory until 1967 but were randomly used beginning in 1963. Also, most, if not all, of Keith's boats carried stamped numbers/letters atop the spacer between the gunwales near the transom. Take a good look and see if there is stamped info there. His boats were marked to last the life of the boat. Without evidence of identifying marks of any kind, i would guess it is a nicely constructed homebuilt boat. Steve Steele would be the final authority on the question about this particular boat.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on June 11, 2012 at 7:22am

Roger, this tag was from a boat at the 2011 show. Thanks for your assistance.

Rick

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Permalink Reply by thomas schumacher on June 11, 2012 at 6:21pm

Hey roger thanks for chiming in, always appreciated. As far as I can tell, there is no evidence of a name plate or stamped info up on or near the transom...or now for that matter. Near the transom, there is a metal plate but that hold the pulley and anchor system at present. I could remove it to see if anything else was under there before that got installed. I certainly don't see any other markings. Hmmmm...I will have to inspect even further but after sanding, sanding, and more sanding, I suspect I've taken away any marking that may have been there. The best I can, tell is that is old and it came from Oregon according to the guy I bought it from.