How old is my boat?

[trialanderror]

I recently acquired a circa fifty year old boat, an Elysian 27 Centre Cockpit.  It seems to have undergone a lot of interior alterations.  Can anyone advise me as to where I might possibly still find an internal reference code that would inform me of year of manufacture?  There is nothing on the transom, externally, to help me.  Was there a need for boats from the late sixties, early seventies to have an ID  marking and for particular manufacturers'/models was there a specific location internally where this might have been etched? AS I am probably the fifth owner of the boat, you can appreciate that original documentation has been lost.

[Alan de Enfield]

3 minutes ago, trialanderror said:

Was there a need for boats from the late sixties, early seventies to have an ID  marking

No

 

That didn't come into effect until the RCD required a HIN commencing16th June 1998

[LadyG]

Photo might help

[Tony Brooks]

You might have more luck from the engine number if its the original engine and if it was not a marinised second-hand unit.

 

Personally I can't see why the age is that important, the hulls were built like the brick built proverbial so should still be in fine fettle unless an exceptional bad case of osmosis has been ignored,.

[trialanderror]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

Photo might help

Really?  Every Elysian 27 Centre cockpit that I have looked at all look identical - are there known subtle  differences?

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

You might have more luck from the engine number if its the original engine and if it was not a marinised second-hand unit.

 

Personally I can't see why the age is that important, the hulls were built like the brick built proverbial so should still be in fine fettle unless an exceptional bad case of osmosis has been ignored,.

Out of luck there - the engine is not believed to be the original

[erivers]

I am lucky to have many documents from the late great Hugh Easton, the designer of the Elysian range at Appleyard, Lincoln & Co at Ely, on the Great Ouse at Cambridgeshire in the 1960s. 

 

There were no markings to indicate the date of hull manufacture of the A & L boats but many hulls were supplied to other yards (such as Banhams and Carringtons) to be fitted out.   There are a few clues - the earliest A & L boats (from about 1963) were fitted with a two glass front panel windscreen, the later ones had three panels.  The later models - MkII - also had raised coaming around the deck at the bow.  The centre cockpit version was made primarily for the hire fleets which came later.

 

As Tony Brooks says, the hulls were very solidly built and don't suffer damage easily. My own E27 dates from 1963 and is still going strong (partly, I have to say, from great boat maintenance advice received on one of Tony's great TB-TRAINING courses at Reading College nearly twenty years ago!  

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by erivers

[matty40s]

7 minutes ago, trialanderror said:

Really?  Every Elysian 27 Centre cockpit that I have looked at all look identical - are there known subtle  differences?

The excellent answer above shows you why a photo or 2 might be useful. 

We also like pictures of boats on here.?

[erivers]

Also some great information and copies of original brochures on the Jones Boatyard website.  L H Jones even fitted out some E27s themselves.

 

http://www.jonesboatyard.co.uk/boat-sales/elysian-27-centre-cockpit-boats-for-sale.html

 

[Tony Brooks]

I suspect the J G Meaks Madiras were basically E27s. I am also think the moulds went through a number of owners. I think Broadland Moulders may have made them at one time.

[trialanderror]

2 hours ago, matty40s said:

The excellent answer above shows you why a photo or 2 might be useful. 

We also like pictures of boats on here.?

Image 1             Image 2

[John Brightley]

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

I suspect the J G Meaks Madiras were basically E27s. I am also think the moulds went through a number of owners. I think Broadland Moulders may have made them at one time.

We hired a brand new Elysian 27 centre cockpit (Sunstar 1)  from Bridge Boatyard of Ely in 1976 and I understood at the time that it was one of the last centre cockpits to be made- I think all the centre cockpits were made by Appleyard Lincoln and they stopped building boats about then. I think the only boats built by other people were the aft cockpit version and that the moulds went first to Bounty Boats before going to J G Meakes.

According to the Bridge Boatyard website Sunstar is still available for hire and they will probably know more about the history.