Re Serenity now Pearl deck and trunk/ house moulding:
There were at least two Caravelles finished with the Halmatic deck and house moulding - or three depending on where Serenity now Pearl fits in.
The reason I say that Serenity now Pearl's deck/house is by Halmatic is that it's identical to
Caravela of Exe's (992J). Caravela was all moulded by Halmatic; I am very intimate with her deck and house. A 2006 online brokerage advert for Serenity now Pearl with large photos made it clear to me that her house was Halmatic; I'll try to find them and post here, but the images linked to from Pearl's name in the listing aren't bad. The only difference is that the larger windows in the raised part have been reduced in height on Sincerity now Pearl, an adjustment to the Halmatic moulding that would most probably have been done by the finisher.
Re stepped fibreglass trunk/ house mouldings in general:
This is one area where the Alden archive material - which I was able to peruse in the early 2000s thanks to the late Niels Helleberg - was very strange. It stated that all of the Molich-finished boats had this configuration which is clearly not true. This was one of the things that led me to think that Sincerity now Pearl could well be be 992H, because of the consecutive numbering and that 992H was not finished by Molich. I am now pretty sure that she is not 992H and pretty sure that West of the Moon presently for sale with Gray and Gray, will prove to be 992H.
So where does that leave Serenity now Pearl's provenance?
Could it be that Franz Furrer, Viareggio, Italy, commissioned the completion of the all-fibreglass 992K from Halmatic, but for whatever reason did not complete on the deal? Was 992K then sent to Hodgdon Bros to become Serenity? Nothing was heard of 992K as Trotolla (Tortolla?) by the Alden design office or has been in the life of this forum. What's against this is that 992K is listed as a sloop, and we do not know for sure whether or not Furrer took delivery.
If she is not 992H or 992K, could she be 992N, listed by Alden as a 1971 Caravelle MkII yawl moulded and finished by Hodgdon? The Alden date for her is 1971, but that could be completion date. What if she was actually all moulded by Halmatic and finished by Hodgdon, and was used by Hodgdon as the plug for the MkII mould? The Alden office had no correspondence for 992N 'Chaser' and we haven't heard anything from her here. Presently the provenance is unknown for the 1969 date for Sincerity, which I've seen in brokerage adverts back to 1982. It could be that the hull was received by Hodgdon from Halmatic in 1969...
Interestingly, the forward cove line finish of the Hodgdon boats
Banjo Girl (992P) and
Bonnie Anne (992R) has a break in the moulding. While Serenity now Pearl's
does not, just like my Halmatic hull and as seen here with
Cythera.
Maybe we are getting as close as can be by "desk work" to saying that Serenity now Pearl is a Halmatic hull, deck and house finished by Hodgdon... Perhaps originally Chaser, 992N. However, both Serenity and Chaser are shown with original owners names at Tim Colton's shipbuildinghistory.com Hodgdon list...
Re the shipbuildinghistory.com lists
The Hodgdon numbers shown in my Caravelle Listing come from an earlier version of Tim Colton's lists. Note that some of the numbers have changed as you can see by comparing with the Hodgdon Caravelles at my listing which I haven't changed yet pending consultation with Tim. I think that most of the information for Alden designed yachts of our group comes from the MIT site linked to from the Alden design numbers at my Listing post. Any time I've written to Tim he has not responded but I believe has eventually tweaked his list from my suggestions. Serenity now shows in both his list for Hodgdon and for Morse... I've written to him again re the provenance for his Hodgdon list entry for Serenity; interestingly it contains a first owner name.... I hadn't noticed Serenity in his previous version and do believe his site has gone through a major revamp in recent years...
Regarding the appearance of both Serenity and Chaser there, perhaps one or other came from a Lloyds Register of American Yachts rather from a Hodgdon provenance document...
All nicely intriguing!