Hin

[Commander 147]

I know after 1972 all boats have a Hull Identification Number on the transom. Since these boats were built prior to that time do they have any way of knowing when the boat was built and the hull number?

I ask because I did a search and could not find the answer and I'm going to look at a Commander that is for sale on sunday.

[kendall]

pretty much just the number plate. My Pearsons are titled with the number on that plate and nothing else.

As for the year, with both my boats I was able to track it down reasonably close by comparing numbers on other boats here on the board. Most here list both the hull number and year of their boats, so it's pretty easy to narrow it down. Also, as I understand, the Commander had a fairly short production run, which also helps.

I've never run into a production table that had the hull numbers and year of manufacture for the ariel or commander, would be a nice idea though. There is one for the Triton showing production changes over the years roughly matched up with hull numbers, but it's not 100%.

Ken.

[Commander 147]

I've seen pictures of the metal plate with the hull number on it. And I guess the title should show the year it was built, but I was hoping there was some identification method for year built on the boat itself.

Thanks for your quick response.

[bill@ariel231]

you can take a guess at the year from the number produced.... Ariels 440 built from 1962 thru 1967 and 351 Commanders from 1964 thru 1967

that's approx 80-90 ariels and 100-115 commanders per year (depending on how you want to count model years).

there is a production timeline for all pearsons at this site:
http://www.pearsoninfo.net/info/timeline.htm


by her title, A-231 is officially a 1964

cheers,
bill@ariel231

[Lucky Dawg]

Hummm... my understanding is that Lucky Dawg - hull #65 was a 1964... That wouldn't match up with those numbers. :confused:

[Bill]

Hummm... my understanding is that Lucky Dawg - hull #65 was a 1964... That wouldn't match up with those numbers. :confused:

More like 1962. Maybe it took until 1964 to sell? :eek:

[Commander 147]

Well maybe or maybe not Kyle.

Do we know what month in 1964 production started and what month in 1967 production ceased? And were the model year 1967 boats actually built in 1967 or were they built in 1966 and part of the "model year" 1967? :confused:

[Lucky Dawg]

More like 1962. Maybe it took until 1964 to sell? :eek:

I was thinking the other direction. The timeline says Commanders were produced 1965 through 67 so I would guess C-65 was built in '65. I thought they started outta the shop in '64. Being born in '64 myself, I kinda liked LD having the same birth year, but I might be her elder!?

____________

p.s. a very random aside... actually two:
1) My father in law has a '66 Corvette convertible, and for his birthday I found an original owner's manual and various other original paperwork for his car. With some research, I also got it's exact born-on date of 9/10/65. I wanted the original build sheet from the factory, but talking to the Corvette Museum in Kentucky, prior to (can't remember now) 1980ish, Chevrolet didn't imagine anyone would ever want such a thing and they shredded all of the originals when they moved offices (or something mundane like that). Of course, now people would love to have anything original...

2) Listening to a story today on Talk of the Nation's Science Friday (NPR show http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97303401) and a guy who recently wrote a book was being interviewed on a now well substantiated theory that the Great Pyramids were built with internal (I told you this was random) ramps rather than (the theory held for hundreds of years) the external ones you've seen in movies. Author was saying that the Egyptian's cataloged everything from horses' names to labor rates, but they have never found any data on their architectural / engineering thinking. Author guessed that maybe they just found their technique so obvious that it didn't need to be recorded.

I must have had a point somewhere here... Oh, yes, ...original production records would be nice to find - Pyramids, Corvettes, or Commanders.

(Hard not to smile sitting behind the wheel of that 327ci 350hp bad boy.)

[Bill]

I was thinking the other direction. The timeline says Commanders were produced 1965 through 67 so I would guess C-65 was built in '65. I thought they started outta the shop in '64. Being born in '64 myself, I kinda liked LD having the same birth year, but I might be her elder!?

Ops. Sorry, I was thinking of Ariel production . . :o

[kendall]

1) My father in law has a '66 Corvette convertible, and for his birthday I found an original owner's manual and various other original paperwork for his car. With some research, I also got it's exact born-on date of 9/10/65. I wanted the original build sheet from the factory, but talking to the Corvette Museum in Kentucky, prior to (can't remember now) 1980ish, Chevrolet didn't imagine anyone would ever want such a thing and they shredded all of the originals when they moved offices (or something mundane like that). Of course, now people would love to have anything original...



Don't know if chevies are the same, but most of the old fords have copies of the build sheets between the springs and padding on the passenger seat, and under the carpet on the passenger floor. Under the seat, they're usually in good shape, but a little wrinkled, under the carpet they're normally pretty well trashed from moisture etc. Holds true for the '75 and older fords, not sure when they stopped.

It's hard to say when the build year is for boats, I've heard that the US auto industry is odd for having the model year that doesn't conform to the calender, nearly everything and everywhere else goes by calender year.

Ken.