Great to see that Squadron hull..... if that's what it truly is...and I'm not saying it's not. So what is it's story?? Someone said "lots of people know about it" ? Well I'd love to know. I'm a big fan. How about a story? I love stories..........
But here's my lowly .02 based on what I've seen/heard, and NOT having the full story because "it's a long story"?. So, NO story leaves me with the following conclusions:
#1 Sure, it may not matter whether or not it has a VIN, but if it is a 30 year old uncut hull, why wouldn't it have a VIN?? They don't add them after they come out of the mold. So where is it? It would be one thing if the boat had been repainted because the gelcoat was dried out, damgaed, well used, needed paint etc, or maybe the owner or painter didn't care, so they sanded it down or covered it up, or maybe the transom had rotted and needed to be redone - but in this case there was never any reason to do any of that - was there?? This one has never even been rigged. Can't imagine why anyone would remove the only clue to what that boat was for no reason? Yes anything is possible.
#2 The hatch looks to be off of hull #18. Too coincidental with paint condition and exact same stripes. #18 just happened to have its deck cut off it's hull, and then sold with no hatch recently. Hmmmm. Only reason I can think off to cut a deck off a hull, (when they are glassed together extremely well) would be to spash it - to make a mold for making more boats. So here is a boat with no VIN, and it just happens to have the hatch off a boat that was more than likely cut up to make a mold. See where I'm going here? Sure one was a 27 and the other is a 24, but they are still connected by the hatch - makes it look like they have both been in the hands of somebody making molds.
#3 I've seen the 24' hull #001 here in MD, and never heard/seen of another 24'er - Squadron even used a picture of the 27'er in thier only brochure for the 24'er.
#4 It's a fact that another company had the mold for the 27'er, and built some boats in the mid 80's with VIN's for that company - IMP I believe - so if this hull wasn't done recently, who says it's not from that company? Why does that matter?? Well, frankly because the small Don Aronow Squadrons seem to be built like a brick ****house. Much better than the old 20' cigs and possibly 28's (ie: I looked at one of those in nice shape, but it had lots of bulkhead and crossbrace seperations/cracks. One that looks exactly like it, but not using Don's race layup, as the 27's and 24's were, just wouldn't be the same boat - but that doesn't mean it couldn't be a great boat....depends on how it was built.
By all means, I hope somebody can prove my conspiracy theory wrong
Pics:
#18 with it's hatch before it was cut up:
24'er brochure - sorry, looks like I lost the pic of the back of the brochure.
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