Builder's Marks
Page updated 15 February 2009
It appears that early Reedcraft boats were fitted with a variety of marks and plates that may, by their presence, help date a boat. The first one illustrated here is found on the starboard bulkhead of a two-berth boat facing the cabin door.
Unfortunately, the date of the boat that it was found on is not certain. However, it is known that such a plate was not fitted to the SeaHawk supplied from new with the sail number #232.
The rather blurred image, below, shows the starboard shroud anchorage point of Pippin (Sail #120). Towards the top, laid into the resin, is a white oval builders plate. A later owner of the boat supplied a clearer image of the oval mark. His photograph shows no indications of the rectangular marks and it must be assumed they are the anchorage points for fittings that some previous owner had installed. All signs of them were removed during the refit that the cabin underwent between these two owners.
At the bottom of the original picture a circular blue plate with an anchor in its centre can be seen. This shows a certificate number from the Ship and Boat Builders National Federation. The example shown below comes from another boat. The owner who supplied this image reports that it wasn't fitted when he bought his boat. He wrote, "I asked the previous owner where this was originally fitted and as far as he can remember it was on a bunk level bulkhead just forward of the keel." He added that he had found out that the SBBNF became the British Marine Industries Federation in 1986 and that all its records are held in the archives at Warwick University.
Another place where a number of owners report a builder's mark is on the keel handle fitting. However, more than one has reported the number "4086" stamped on this casting, so it appears not to indicate a unique hull number and its function remains a mystery.
