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Hey many thanks for taking the time to help a newbie. I appreciate it, and I like the tone of this forum, very helpful. We could not wait to take the little boat out for a spin yesterday, even though there were thunderstorms all day. We saw an opening in the radar and off we went, had a great introductory run, like the way the hull performs, got back under cover and never got a drop of rain on us.

Very solid feel, much more so than anything without foam panel construction like that. Crossed some large wakes (Cumberland River near Nashville) and of course we had to throttle down, but impressed with the stability. This is our first Whaler, and I suspect we'll be getting another one someday.

I am going to try for some reasonable but Whaler-correct upgrades, such as rail and mahogany trim, done exactly as research photos will indicate (I'm an architect and a boat guy, and appreciate faithful originality and restraint).

About the ID numbers. Although you have mentioned the numbers should look like this or that, the numbers I have posted are the "only" alfa-numeric identification on the boat, either in tag twice or stencil once. I do agree it is most likely a 1986, as it would be easy to transpose the 6 and the 8.

Regards,

Paul