Okay, I was looking for details of the SS Minnow and it appears the Minnow left Hawaii with dark trim and SS MINNOW painted up by the trim.

When the Minnow was shipwrecked, the storm must have washed the trim off and dropped the lettering lower on the boat.

With the pic of Ms. Wells and Mr. Denver, it appears the promotion image only reads "MINNOW", dropping the "SS"

Just noticed that the wreck in the pilot appears to be the same as the one they left Hawaii with.

Taking another look, it appears that the red trim is only in the "never-aired" pilot.

I know they used 2 and maybe even 3 different boats as the S.S. Minnow"

Pat, old thread, but hopefully i can answer some of your questions.
Ok a total of 4 boats were used. Two for the pilot, both were identical, give or take paint schemes, then when they started filming the 1st season, they built a prop boat, which i personally think was a non runner, reconfigured. Possibly a fishing boat because it had a long eskeg, or what i call a loww extended keel.the prop was also reused for the second and third opening credits..now for the second and third season comes the 4th boat, it was used for the marina scenes, the blue jacket,, a 1964 wheeler, at some point it wrecked and was rebuilt, it looks nothing like it did in the 60s now.

Here is an interesting article on this topic.

http://www.gilligansisle.com/minnow.html

Good article,
Some more info on the wheeler, it was a 38 foot wheeler playmate, with the express/flybridge in 1971 in was largely modified, as to why it looks nothing like it did in the opening credits of season 2/3.

Found out finally what kind of boat was used as the ss minnow in the pilot. It was a haole sampan sportfisherman..year unkown, but im guessing late 50s. Early 60s

easy to see the side back windows are shaped differently