A Deltacraft Builders plate

The original idea of Andrew Webber in 2007, as detailed on our Home page was that we develop a "data base" of fellow owners.

We have only now received details of several builders plates and this provides a base to commence a "data base".

Email Tom at sign with details of your builders plate.

The Mark 1

Mark 1 plate location

The Deltacraft company which built the Mark 1 was wound up by Steve Leonard in 1982.

Steve reports that they were building a Deltacraft Mark 1 every 5 days that is 60 per year, in the period before the the business was sold.

The Mark 1 was built from 1978 to 1982.

Steve advised me that some plates may have a strange looking 3 in the number sequence. This is because at one stage they lost the number 3 punch and used a reverse E stamp in place of the 3.

This can be seen in the photo of a plate near the top of this page.

Mark 1 Deltacraft Builder Plates Located
Number	Date Built	Current Location		Name	Date Located

329 799	Sept 1979	Lake Macquarie	NSW	-	Sept 2015

407 8101	January 1981	Sussex Inlet	NSW	-	Oct 2015

197 821	January 1982	Hawkesbury River	NSW	Cindy	Aug 2013

420 842	February 1984	Goolwa	SA	Stubby Kay	Sept 2021

401 861	January 1986	Goolwa	SA	Pugsley	April 2021

405 848	16 August 1984				February 2023

The Mark 2

Mark 2 plate location

In 1982 John Gale and Steve formed a partnership, called Galecraft, a name that John already owned. They only employed a laminator on the chopper gun, and an apprentice.

The Mark 2 was built from 1982 to 1989.

The Deltacraft Mark 2 numbering started at number 100 in 1982.

The plates are located next to drivers seat on right-hand side of boat, shown in the photo.

They sold the business to Mark Willis in late 1987. Steve stayed on for 6 months. Production of the Mark 2 ceased in 1989.

The first boat built was number 100 so G116 is the 17th boat built by Galecraft, hence the G for Galecraft prefix.

The other section of the number 883 records the build year of 1988 and the 3 indicates the month of the year, in this case March.

Deltacraft Mark 2 Builders Plates Located
Number	Date Built	Current Location		Name	Date Located

101 8112	Dec 1981	Gold Coast	QLD	Goliath or Golioth	Feb 2023

G116 883	March 1988	-	VIC	-	July 2014

G118 883	March 1988	Sugar Bay	NSW	Albatross	July 2014

G119 893	March 1989	-	-	-	January 2020

G153 8104	? ?	-	-	-	Jan 2016

- 21-6-85	June 1985	Gleneagle	SE QLD	-	Feb 2023

Plate 396 - 837

A Deltacraft Builders plate

Boat is "Stubby Kay", Number is 420 842 Interestingly, we have been told it was built in 1982 and Mark 1 .

A different design. The inscription at the bottom of the plate appears to read:-
"Built for Nick Ram ??. By John Gale, Start Xmas 19??.

Plate 401 - 861. According to registration details was built in 1980 but as you can see the ID plate says different.

What year this MK2 was built ?

T A C R (DelTACRaft) impressed across the top of the plate. Letter E upsidedown to represent a 3.

The plate is fastened with pop rivets, as are all the other genuine plates. The word "Deltacraft" looks like it has been impressed with a single punch for the full word, whereas the early plates look as if they were punched letter by letter, and do not line up as neatly.
If you look at the story further up the page you will see that MK2 were built from 1982 to 1989 and that they were numbered from 100. I think this hull was moulded late in 1981 and was the first or second MK2 completed.

The owner wrote :-
I thought this was the builders plate of our Mark 2 Deltacraft, named “TUBBY”, which was purchased from Lake Macquarie, NSW in 2006, but it appears to have been replaced with a hire boat plate, which surprised me, as the boat is in good condition.
It reads
ABLE BOATS
AB101
5 - 1 - 87
This date could be 5th January 1987 or 1st May 1987.

A few days later we found an Australian Government ABN web page which told us that Able Boats P/L were registered in 1982 and closed 1993.

21-6-85
SER.NO. MW
and another letter which we can't decipher.

Builders plates and the age of your Deltacraft

If you can not locate a builders plate on your Deltacraft here are other ways to age your boat.

Fuel tanks - In an item on fuel tanks for the Mark 1 Steve mentions that "In the very beginning some red plastic fuel tanks of 20 litres were also used."

Shower & toilet - Mark 1, if it has a shower /toilet module behind the steering it was built in 1981, if not then it's built prior to 1981.

Sign writing - Another clue to the age of your boat is that the early Mark 1 had the below signwriting which depicts the moon rising over an island with two palm trees.

Here is a modern sticker, which is based on the original above.

Plates from a Melbourne built Deltacraft

Read the full story about the Melbourne built Delta.