Help me ID my dad's old boats?

[whitney]

I guess the boating thing must be in the genes. I bought my first boat this year, and I knew my dad had a couple of fishing boats but I didn't realize he had some cool runabouts when I was young and before I was born .... Mom just had some old slides scanned and we spotted these today.

Can anyone verify the year and model of these 2 boats and tell me anything interesting about them? Just curious.

First pic is from probably about 1971 or so. That's my sister smiling for the camera. Mom thinks this was a Sea Ray. Pretty neat looking with all the fiberglass work. I believe it was bought used so it must be a late 60's model.

Next, is a Caravelle (?) from the mid-70's or so, I must have been 5 or 6 (that's me in the pic, girl lived next door). Funny I remember the boat at home but don't remember ever being out on it. In fact I was kind of terrified of boats until I got my own...

Cool stuff. Now that I'm a boating enthusiast I wish I could see those again.

 

[Adjuster]

Re: Help me ID my dad's old boats?

Can't help ya but just wanted to say those are very nice photos.

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Help me ID my dad's old boats?

That first boat is definitely a SeaRay, the engine is a Mercury, probably an inline 4 cylinder 85 HP. Smaller sibling of the inline six 115 HP enthusiasts call "Tower of Power". When I was a kid that 115 was the engine we envied. The fastest outboard boats around here ran them. More of our families had 85s though. Only a few straight inboards were faster, stern drives were in their infancy.
The red second boat has a badge that makes me think it's a Century. It has a pretty small looking Evinrude on there. If it's a two cylinder it might have said "sport twin" on the engine cowling. Might have been a 35 or 40 horsepower. I bet your dad liked the boat for it's extra stability. Tri hulls sit very flat while going slowly or while stationary. Whereas the SeaRay would ride well once moving, but the vee hull would have wallowed below planing speed.
Nice pic's. They bring back memories.

 

[WinM70]

Re: Help me ID my dad's old boats?

Cool photos, thanks for the walk down memory lane.