Hull #3 history

While Cruising back from Alaska I had the opportunity to talk to the original owner of my boat. He said the Camano 34's were never built as fishing boats and were meant to be cabin cruisers from the mold up and his boat was new built in 1976. Apparently the mold was used to build fishing boats at one time. That got me wondering even more.

A Ford Lehman expert said my engine was from 1971 or 1972. It seems odd to have an engine sitting around for 4 to 5 years as they are rather expensive and would be ordered only if a boat was being built for them. I'll have to check the ser# myself to see if I can determine age.

 I also wonder about the build. If it was a cabin cruiser from design I wonder about the decision to not trim down the forward bulwark which extends past the pilothouse.

If the pilot house was already built it would make perfect economic sense to not cut the bulwark back for an easy step off the boat to the dock and for forward deck drainage but if the boat was to be a cabin cruiser cutting that back to allow the forward deck to drain would be cheaper and allow for easier cheaper, quicker, construction of the forward corners of the aft cabin. Not to mention easier dock access.

Also looking at the construction it appears the pilothouse was built first and the cabin and aft decks added later. Even today you could cut off the aft cabin and not effect any major cable or wire runs or operating systems.

Maybe they used a rebuild engine, or used engine, and gave the design and construction to the "new guy" and told him to use what was around the shop?

That's one of the neat things with old boats, history and mystery. I wonder if past owners would be able to determine that the boat cruised trouble free from Washington State to Alaska and back in the second decade of the twenty first cehtury? Maybe, maybe not.