Identity Crisis?
 

Okay, maybe not a crisis. I have a 1996 Mariah 215 Talari cuddy cruiser. The interesting part is that my coast gaurd plate states is a Davanti. Which is it?

Thanks all

Hmm, well I wouldnt consider myself a pro at distinguishing older Mariah models since I'am relatively new to them myself. However, I bet if you were to post a few pictures on here, im sure someone should be able to distinguish what type of boat you may have.

Definetely attach some pics to this thread and we'll try to help you out. What makes you think that the boat is a Talari? Do you have anything on the boat that says "Talari" or were you just told it was a Talari when you bought it?

It says Talari on the sides of my boat in about a 400 font. ;)

If I could figure out how to post some pics, I'd be all over it.

haha yeah that would definitely give it away, lol. You should be able to click "manage attachments" under your reply and select your images from your computer to upload. Let me know if you have any problems doing so and i'll straighten it out asap.

I think I may have done this correctly
 

This was in April of this year, the second week that the ice was off the lakes.

I believe the Davanti "turned into" the Talari between '95 and '96. They probably had plates leftover from the previous year, and since they were technically the same boat, USCG either let them get by with it or they were never notified (as in... what they don't know won't hurt them).

mariah picts
 

hello, here some picts of my boat. hope you like them. greetz from holland

Good looking boat Harry! These Mariahs are kinda rare over here, I bet that boat is a real oddity over there!

Back to the thread....I have a 95 Talari Z240...no Davanti on it anywhere....

Doug,

After looking at the NADA guide, I believe they changed the name from Davanti to Talari over a matter of 2 or 3 years, depending on the model (length). I think yours was one that changed in '94 or '95.

Of course, NADA isn't the most accurate thing, but I believe it's right for this situation.

I work for a lighting company, and we have strict UL guidelines to meet. One thing we've "squeezed" out was a "special" fixture with the standard fixture's UL label. I'm thinking the same thing happened with 215Talari. They had these darn plates laying around (that they probably already paid the USCG a fee for) and wanted to save a little money and use them up.

Quite a confusing deal never the less...

Original employee here. Boats that were given the Davanti designation were boats with a cuddy cabin. Jimmy came up with the name Davanti because he heard that the prefix "dava" meant "in the front" in Italian. Talari refered to "the winged heels of Mercury". Davantis and Barchettas had windshield "wings" and Talaris did not. Other than the "wings" or "humps" the boats were identical. As for your plate, we used plates based on boat size and not necessarly model. We did run out of stuff from time to time and you will see a few things out there like this. Hey, we custom, hand built every one of those babys! Consider yours a collectors item!


P.S. Jimmy came up with Shabah when he heard that Iraqis refered to the stealth bomber in desert storm as Shabah. (It translates into "Night Ghost")