TOPIC: Anybody Help Me With This 55 Laurel Find?

Hi All again,

Though I pride myself in being pretty darn proficient using the internet to search and find most anything I need, I am coming up pretty lean on information for this boat I just found.

Regi says it is a 1955 Laurel. As I can see pretty much all original(but for maybe the bow light and trailer I put under it). Has Laurel name plates on the step pads, the center of the steering wheel, an emblems on the stern outside hull.

Haven't even done much looking on the 40 Sovereign Gale...but did get it firing but needs carb work.(surely is really apparent to be an OMC under the hood). Good compression on both Cyls.

Besides a little rub rash on the hull gel coat on port side, and a little splitting of a couple of seats at the seam, it is in fine shape(oh and a 3 inch crack in the Taylor Made windshield).

Check out that transom width...I think the plate said rated to something like 80hp(its so thin but solid as rock) but is certainly wide enough for a pair of 35 Golden Javelin's I figure.

Comments welcomed and any insight into the Laurel boat company or other boats are certainly appreciated.(yes I searched here and found limited info on the company and only one post by somebody that did not get much response in the forum). Think I might have found another rare one?

Here is one Pic:



Check out a bunch of pics here(sorry for dups): >

s688.photobucket.com/albums/vv241/tmeraw/Laurel/

Thanks,
Tim

barnfinder,

i'd "rassle ya'll, barefoot or shoes" for that Gale Sovereign! = NICE.
(fwiw, the gale division of OMC was supposed to be the "cheap motor" BUT they often were "the test bed for" NEW IDEAS & often, in my experience, run BETTER than their higher-priced siblings.)

the BEST-running OB that i've ever owned was a SEA KING 35 (a GALE sold by Montgomery Wards), that seemed BULLET-PROOF.

PURTY hull, too.

yours, satx

Good looking rig Tim, you DO seem to have a knack at finding the rare and/or unusual ones!

Onlything I'd do to that rig is maybe extend the trailer tongue. Pretty nice boat.

Does it not look more like a 1960s boat?

Google News Archive revealed:

news.google.com/newspapers?id=kwYdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=34sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1164,2033068&dq=laurel-boat&hl=en

Might be the correct boat firm.

Andreas

Robert...yes the boat is a bit big for the trailer and the tongue should be lengthened.

Andreas..... I am suspect of the 1955 on the registration but with nothing else to go by not much I can do. I was able to find that article you sent and one other reference but nothing else.

According to the Florida Secretary of State, there was a Laurel Boat Company, Inc. registered with them between 1962 and 1966:

sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&inq_doc_number=262497&inq_came_from=NAMFWD&cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&names_name_ind=&names_cor_number=&names_name_seq=&names_name_ind=&names_comp_name=LAURELBOAT&names_filing_type=

Go to "google news archive" and search. I found several hits for Laurel Boat in the 1960s.

Andreas

satx78247 wrote:

barnfinder,

i'd "rassle ya'll, barefoot or shoes" for that Gale Sovereign! = NICE.
(fwiw, the gale division of OMC was supposed to be the "cheap motor" BUT they often were "the test bed for" NEW IDEAS & often, in my experience, run BETTER than their higher-priced siblings.)

the BEST-running OB that i've ever owned was a SEA KING 35 (a GALE sold by Montgomery Wards), that seemed BULLET-PROOF.

PURTY hull, too.

yours, satx

I would have to rassle ya for that Gale now Satx.

I just spent an hour pulling off the carb and cleaning it and it is purring and pumping water fine now. It was really gunged up inside with whitish/brown milky stuff that I had never seen inside a carb before...kinda looked like gear lube that had water intrusion.

Here's a photo of another Laurel reputed to be a 1959. Judging from the style of your Laurel, I highly doubt it is a 1955, but rather an early 60's model.

Here are a couple 1960 items from a long-ago ebay listing:

Tim, the longer that i've\ looked at your rig, the more that i believe that it's a '62 or '63 boat & Gale OB.

that's called a SWAG, though i saw some of those "back in the day", as i grew up on a lake & owned a speedboat 3+ years before i had a car or a DL.
(may i point o0ut that, if you live on a lake & own a nice RED/white YELLOWJACKET speedboat, it wasn't TOO HARD to find a WARM teenaged honey (who had use of a car) and was quite willing to trade rides on dates for a place to waterski, sunbathe & smooch in those long ago SUNNY days/DAZE.)

yours, satx