Good question Richard. Finished by hand with no components,
all boats will have some differences. Each builder no doubt added changes. And then owners may have specified changes. Hard to say how some varied from the plans by Alden. I'm sure they had to follow them pretty closely for the overall dimensions etc. but smaller changes must have happened on every boat.
949 is the Alden design # for the Challenger. They used a system of letters to number the boats. A B C D ,etc. I believe they omitted or skipped the the letter "i'. If I'm right, you can figure your boats number by counting through the alphabet. Then it started again, AA BB CC etc.
The best way is to contact Alden, they are very kind in supplying what info they have on your boat. They may have previous owners and details etc.
Strangley, my boats plaque has the hulls number correct, but it is an incorrect Alden design number, 917. Alden has no idea how this mystery came about, especially the fact that I brought it to their attention 43 years after it was built. Was it switched? Was it incorrectly engraved? I still haven' found out anything about design # 917.
