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What factors would identify a c.1985 STRIPER 15 model?

LONG BACK STORY WITH MANY DETAILS OF AN EXISTING HULL

I thought I owned a 1985 SPORT 15, but now I am not sure. The HIN and stencil numbers indicate a 1985 hull. The models for that year were the Sport, Super Sport, Center Console, and Striper. But the the model features [visible on my boat] don't add up to it being a SPORT 15.

The hull I purchased was in bad shape with screw holes all over the interior deck. None of the screw holes matched where Sport or Super Sport thwart seats and side boards would have been.

There were holes in the deck where a console, swivel seat, and cooler seat could have been. The pattern of holes was consistent with these features.

There was the remains of a smashed fiberglass console with the original Boston Whaler stainless steel six-spoke steering wheel and a TeleFlex Safe-T steering head still attached.

The Mercury remote controls had a chunk of fiberglass console still attached.

There is no rigging tunnel down the center of the hull--that would eliminate the Center Console model.

There was no bow rail nor holes where it would have mounted.

The side rails were missing but there were holes to indicate the boat came with them.

I know this is not much information to work with. Most glaring: the lack of screw holes for the thwart seats and side boards.

Most Boston Whaler boats I looked at showed obvious indications that thwart seats and side boards were attached. Dirt would accumulate under the thwarts and behind the boards, and they would leave an impression in the gel coat.

This boat had none of that.

Oldslowandugly wrote:What [features] identify a c.1985 STRIPER 15 model?

The STRIPER 15 is described in the REFERENCE section article on the 15-foot hull. See

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/refer ... ml#striper

In CETACEA Page 50 there are several good photographs of a STRIPER 15. See

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/cetac ... age50.html

The most prominent features of a STRIPER that would leave distinguishable screw holes in the deck of a bare hull are:

• a circular mounting base for a swivel pedestal seat in cockpit slightly aft of amidships
• a molded helm console of modest height located on Starboard--not a "center console"
• chocks mounted on deck for retaining a large cooler cockpit, and
• a very strong cast bracket was bolted (possibly through-bolted) at the aft end of the bow storage locked to receive the tubular vertical post of another swivel seat.

The existence of screw holes in the patterns and locations described above would be very good evidence that an otherwise undistinguished 15-foot hull was originally built and finished as a STRIPER model. Also note that there was no "center console" on a STRIPER and thus no need for a rigging tunnel running under the deck in the center of the deck to the transom.

In 1985 a boat from Boston Whaler would not be sold with an engine already installed and rigged. The details of the engine rigging would be done by the dealer selling the boat or by the customer buying the boat. Remnants of the engine rigging would not be particularly indicative of a specific model.

In the past, Boston Whaler customer service could often consult their old written log books which recorded some details of the model based on the hull stencil number. I do knot know if that practice was done still being done in 1985 or if those old log books are still available to customer service representatives at Boston Whaler in 2022. If the data was recorded and the log books are available, the log books would be a source of more definitive information about the history of the particular boat that is the topic of this discussion.

Knowing the boat's original configuration would not make a boat that was missing all of those features 37-year-later be able to be designated as a "STRIPER 15" model. Without all the original equipment, a 37-year-old 15-foot bare hull is just that: a 37-year-old 15-foot bare hull.

jimh wrote:The most prominent features of a STRIPER that would leave distinguishable screw holes in the deck of a bare hull are:

• a circular mounting base for a swivel pedestal seat in cockpit slightly aft of amidships
• a molded helm console of modest height located on Starboard--not a "center console"
• chocks mounted on deck for retaining a large cooler cockpit, and
• a very strong cast bracket was bolted (possibly through-bolted) at the aft end of the bow storage locked to receive the tubular vertical post of another swivel seat.

The features that make me feel [my 15-footer was] a STRIPER:

• there were holes to indicate [a seat bracket] was once [at the bow]
• the circular screw hole pattern--which had confused me until I read about the mount for the swivel seat in the REFERENCE article
• the remains of the smashed console of old fiberglass, probably original.
• residual dirt and impressions in the gel coat indicated the existence of a console, two swivel seats, and a cooler seat

.

I now wish I had taken a before-and-after picture. At the time I had no idea about many different Boston Whaler models. I just thought someone had been excessive with drilling holes for equipment.

Even if [my 15-foot boat] was [once] a genuine Striper, I have no intentions to restore it to that configuration.


See https://www.smartmarineguide.com/L49615163