Lonely little boat followed me home

[BruceDrake]

Came across a little boat that had gone up to Government Camp (Mt Hood) to play with the inner tubes on the sliding hill, but they would not let him play on the hill since boats are supposed to play in water not frozen water.

It begged me to take it home with me so it could now play in our field until its old enough to play in the water.

1955-57. Anyone other than Marty or Chuck know what it is? More pictures and an ad from fiberglassics library will follow.

[Skagitguy]

OMG ! You have done it again ! At least they are getting smaller so they can be hidden easier. Chuck

[Steve_Kiesel]

Glaspar made a little 10ft. in the late fifties. Hard to tell from that angle.

[BruceDrake]

Steve wins two points

Glasspar 10 Superlite
Bow plate lists only two plants -California and Tennesse so I expect it was one of the first couple years they made these. Seller had repainted the boat and refinished all the woodwork. Everything is sound so no projects other that double checking that all the fasteners are stainless rather than Home Depot specials.

Fiberglassics 1957 (I even have a small Johnson 10hp tucked away in the barn that is probably the same as in the picture.)
http://www.fiberglassics.com/library...sparb57004.jpg

The bow plate has the number 10A182 embossed in the middle on the vertical side just below Glasspar. I don't know if that is a part number or a serial number for the boat. Does anyone know if Glasspar had boat numbers and if so how do you interpret them?

[Seanfromseattle]

Bruce, If you're not in the Glasspar Owners Association, you should be. Recently there was a post for a guy who bought a Marathon. I am no expert on Glasspars (far from it...). Anyway from what I can put together they were saying that the first numbers are the length 10'. The A is either the model or the plant it was made in. But I think they added a letter for plants later. The next number should be the year it was made; 1951? Then 82 should be the 82nd one made. All that is just an educated guess, but if you put a post on the GOA forum, the experts should be able to help you. PS: Pretty cool little boat. How much does she weigh?

[BruceDrake]

Sean

I will look over the Glasspar forum further (it is interesting that the Glasspar forum has no pictures of the superlite). Using your coding system. It is 10' and if letters are plants I bet that A is for the first plant in California. They started in 1950 so 1 could be 1951 (but I doubt they had the foresight to come up with letters that early to identify current and future plans). You would think they had a two number system for years since they were making models like this around 1961 as well. 1 might also be the first year in production.

My wife pointed out (the obvious) that if I want to quiz people about a boat in a picture I should not have a title for the picture that says what the boat is.

[Tim_Mattson]

Pretty sweet little craft.The early boat builder`s had their own system on coding but later the letters were uually used for Month of Production.....numbers usually told what production Number with 01 or 001 thru 99 or 009,numbers then repeating if over 100/1000 were made in any year.
After 1966 or so,Manufacturors had a code given for each maker,some making no sense after being abreviated or because the Parent Co. was part of the scheme.
These newer boats would have the Footage as the first numbers,a letter for the month made,production numbers,and the last numbers stating model year and year produced.
I always found the Glasspar numbers on the little framed placard ,with a stamped pc slipped behind the chrome frame.
TimM
ps ,Sean,picture that tender on top of your future Hardtop!:cool1:

[Jill_S]

Bruce,

Since I've been poking around lately I thought I'd add to this thread with some pics of another lonely Glasspar of similar year and design that needs to follow someone home too......but not me!!!:Shocked: I have enough boats. I forget what the name of this mid 50's Glasspar but its a shorty too like yours. I will find out.....at least for my records. You can see the lower portion has the similar Glasspar look like the the Del Mar, Lido, Avalon, Marathon and so on.

Sean puts up some very good info on the Glasspar coding system. Rod Burkholder has done a quite extensive study on the model number coding system and the info is on the Glasspar site somewhere and I'm sure the Glasspar webmaster Mike would know what it is too. Mike wanted to take this early production boat but he too has too many boats on his plate.

Here also is a pic of my beatup plate on my Sefair like Tim mentions and where its located on the Sedans.

[TheBronze]

A little late to this thread but I do have the full spec on the Glasspar build numbers. It goes as follows:


How to interpret a Glasspar build plate:

First two numbers: Hull length
First letter: Model
Second Letter: Plant built
3rd number: year built
Remaining numbers: hull number.

Example:
14MO1431: 14 foot Marathon built in Olympia in 1961, hull number 431.

Example:
14MA1072: 14 Marathon built in Santa Ana in 1961, Hull number 072.

Notes:
Build Plants:
A = Santa Ana, CA
P = Petersburg, VA
N= Nashville, TN
O = Olympia, WA


In 1963/1964 the letter designation was changed to indicate the plant by state rather than city.

So, your hull, 10A182, is 10 foot, built in the Santa Ana plant in '51, hull 182. Thats my best guess anyway! I have a feeling they didn't put the model number on the early ones?

[Jill_S]

Excellent!!!! Thanks for posting that info John.

I believe 59 Sefair is the 1st year they made them.

17XA9565

17 ft model X built in Sana Ana 1959 hull number 565.

[BruceDrake]

Bronze and Jill

Bronze, thank you for your input but I am a slow learner and got confused by it:
"Example:
14MA1072: 14 Marathon built in Santa Ana in 1961, Hull number 072.

Notes:
Build Plants:
A = Santa Ana, CA
P = Petersburg, VA
N= Nashville, TN
O = Olympia, WA

So, your hull, 10A182, is 10 foot, built in the Santa Ana plant in '51, hull 182. Thats my best guess anyway! I have a feeling they didn't put the model number on the early ones?


How does the example work where in one example 1 is 1961 and in your interpretation of my hull # 10A182 the 1 becomes 1951. What am I missing here.

I am guessing 1 is 1961 in my case and the hull number is 82, since they were such a young company . Fiberglassics information below suggests they had only one plant up to 1954 and the Tennessee plant name is on my bowplate.

From Fiberglassics library: The Glasspar Company was incorporated in December 1950 to develop fiberglass products and its first offerings were fiberglass tops and bodies for sports cars (the Glasspar G2), cabs for construction equipment, and outboard boats. In 1954, Glasspar had 27,000 sq ft of production space in the Santa Ana location; by 1958 they expanded to three more locations for a total of 146,000 sq. ft. (Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly, Aug 11, 1958).

Jill: It looks like your boat picture is a superlite with the deck option if it is 10'. My superlite has smooth sides but the 1956 picture on Fiberglassics has a side rib like your boat. They call the 1956 model a Little Wonder but in the summary page where different years and models are listed 1956 only shows a superlite in the 9'8" length like my superlite.
http://www.fiberglassics.com/library...sparb56002.jpg

[Jill_S]

I looked back on the Glasspar site to find my original inquery on that boat for a friend and I can't believe its almost been over a year since I've posted to my Glasspar buddy's.

Your boat might not be a Superlite cause its missing the splashrail moulding on the side of the hull? Superlite's were 10' and the Balboa is 13'. Not sure but your boat is really cool and seems to be in good shape. My Fresno friends boat is definately a Balboa.

Here is a link to the thread....hope it works.

http://www.classicglasspars.com/inde...453&Itemid=545

And here is a brochure posted by boatsnmotors.

If you want me to post a pic of your boat for an inquery(not sure on that spelling) I can.

[Steve_Kiesel]

My 59 Seafair is 17XA9420.

Jill, I think it was you that offered some help smuggling it out of Walnut Creek four or five years ago. When you offered to have someone go look at it for me, I had already pulled the trigger. Glad I did, love the old Seafair.

Here's a picture I took on the way back around Roseburg somewhere.