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I'm looking at a 1978 Outrage 20 and on both sides of the hull near the transom the hull sides are wavy, like this thing has gotten extremely hot at one point and warped both sides. It looks like original gelcoat and the wavy areas seem solid.

Any idea what could have caused this, and if it is a major issue as far as structural damage?

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I've got two on each side of my Grady White. Same place. Might be the mold.

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It literally looks like a crane with a grapple claw grabbed the mold, then they popped a boat out of it. Ive been arond various types of boats my whole life and neither myself or all of my boating friends have ever seen anything like this. its priced very right and the funky hullsides wouldnt bother me as long as the boat is solid.

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Whalers with wavy sides are somewhat common and typically so long as the fiberglass skin has not delaminated from the foam with is not a structural issue. It can occur from shrinking internal foam. All of the wave sided Outrages I have ever ran across have been 18 Outrages. While the boat is probably fine it is a defect that I would not want to live with and have passed on a couple otherwise nice boats because of it.

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I just talked to the salesman this morning, and he claims that it was pulled from the mold prematurly, and that was a somewhat common thing back in the day.

I think Im going to give it a seccond look, any other things I need to look for in this particular year/model?

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Let me straighten a few things out here:

Wavy sides on a Whaler are not uncommon, especially in the late 1970s and early 1980s models.

Wavy sides are caused by the foam shrinking over several years and pulling in or "oil canning" the flat surfaces of the hulls which is usually just the stern topsides.

Wavy sides are NOT the result of the mold itself.

Wavy sides are NOT the result of the hull being pulled from the mold too early.

Wavy sides are NOT the result of extreme heat causing warpage.

Wavy sides are NOT the result of any sort of stress on the hull.

Wavy sides are NOT a major structural defect, only a cosmetic one. The boat is otherwise perfectly fine.

The most notorious victim of the wavy sides is the 1981-1982 Outrage 18. Some of these were so bad that Whaler replaced the hulls under warranty. I have seen one of those hulls and it was severely puckered.

When Whaler started production in 1957-1958 they also had some puckered hulls that had to be destroyed. It was all part of the learning curve as to how much foam to pour into the hull to fill it up. It turns out you need to add a considerable amount more than the volume of the hull to avoid having the foam expand to its "free rise" volume. That is one reason the Whaler hull molds are steel reinforced and clamped together so tightly when the foam is added.

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I guess I've looked at a dozen or more, 18' Outrages, 82 -88, over the last couple of months, all had some waving to the hull. I think if you look at most of these boats hard enough, and if they are shinned up real good, your going to see some waves. My Montauk has waves, as do most others, when I start looking hard down their sides, in good light. I think, for the most part, it's the nature of the beast. If you pass on every boat with some waves, you are not going to own many BW's of this era.

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I also think that the waves have been there for quite some time. Most exhibit no gelcoat cracking in these areas. If the distortions happened late in the boat's life, I think there would be checking, like in the walked on non-skid floor areas of these boats. I'm not saying not to avoid extremely wavy hull boats, just maybe not take it all a bit to far.

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I have 2 slight depressions (1 on ea. side) near the stern on my '76 15' sport, you can only see them in the right light after she's all waxed up, a day or two in the bay, and that shiny waxed hull is dull, and you can't see them anymore, it's been my observation that most older Whalers have them (when I can see them). No Biggie.
mw

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you can see it in the pics

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Starboard side has them as well.

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This is at a dealer and they are asking $3500 on the trailer, without power.

Besides the wavy hull sides the boat looks to be in pretty good shape for a 1978. I'm going to go check it out some more, do these things have a wood core transom and stringers?

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That Outrage 20 does not look too bad.

The transom has a plywood core. There are no stringers in the hull. No Unibond Whaler hull has stringers. There is plywood backing in the hull for attaching things with screws.

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After 50years has Whaler gotten the manufacturing process that causes the wavy sides figured out yet? Or is this something that happens later as the hull ages. Can you imagine if GM produced cars with wavy sides? they would be in even worse trouble.
rich

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I have two waves on each side 1989 18 Outrage.

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Picked it up tonight. It was too good of a deal to pass up...

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Congratulations!

Jeff

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Thanks, I needed another (3rd) project boat like I need a hole in the head.

How are the drain passages routed inside the hull? The boat was sitting at a pretty extreme bow in the air angle on the trailer and was holding some water inside the fuel tank area. I figured a drain tube or hole was just plugged somewhere...

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Good Luck with the 18. Thats a great boat. I have my eye out for one as well.

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The boat is an Outrage 20 not an 18 or a 19.

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If you look through Jeff's article Link here you will see the fuel tank cavity floor is is below the rigging tunnel and will not completely drain.

Jeff added a primeless pump and hose.

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Thanks, the floor was just replaced in this one, not back to original but looks more like stained and polyurethaned plywood. I will post some more pics later. The dealer actually wanted me to take the old hacked up floor skin, it was beyond usable. Im sure I will have dozzens more stupid questions about this thing once I dive into it.

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There are "NO" stupid question's... this is "W/C".
mw

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Can anyone tell me what is suppoesed to go here? Im guessing a fuel level sending unit since the hole is bushed and plugged and there is no gas guage on the console.

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Can anyone tell me what is suppoesed to go here? Im guessing a fuel level sending unit since the hole is bushed and plugged and there is no gas guage on the console.

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Can anyone tell me what is suppoesed to go here? Im guessing a fuel level sending unit since the hole is bushed and plugged and there is no gas guage on the console.

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Also curious is to what the bottom smaller hole is for?

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Also curious is to what the bottom smaller hole is for?

having trouble posting pics, sorry