The Glastex Company, founded in Tinley Park, Illinois, produced a range of fiberglass products including fiberglass fibers for industrial use. Beginning in 1953, Glastex began to manufacture fiberglass boats, making it one of the earliest builders of molded fiberglass boats in the United States. From 1953 to 1962, Glastex built "Speed Queen" boats.
Glastex Company president and founder, William J. Horvath, expanded the company to a 47,000-square-foot (4,400 m2) facility in Monmouth, Illinois after an early-1958 zoning dispute regarding manufacturing use of the 7-acre (28,000 m2) property and the 9,000-square-foot (840 m2) building located there. In 1958, Glastex employed twenty-two people and produced on average six boats a day before expanding to Monmouth later that year. Felt Enterprises bought the Glastex Company in 1961. The Monmouth, Illinois facility began building Sea Star Boats in 1968 and continued until 1981. Reorganized in 1982, Felt Enterprises built Mach I Boats until 1991. In 1993, the company was reorganized again and was known as Envision Boats, Inc. which operated until 2009.
Speed Queen Boats were manufactured from 1953 to 1962. The first model was designed by company founder William J. Horvath. Fourteen feet in length, the first model was a centerdeck-style, all fiberglass runabout that could accept outboard motors up to 50 hp (37 kW). Additional sixteen and eighteen-foot models were added in 1958 and 1959.
Sea Sprite Boats were built for a marine dealer in North Webster, Indiana by the Bee Boat Company of Paxton, Illinois beginning in 1962. Overwhelmed by several contracts, the production of Sea Sprite Boats was contracted to the Glastex Company of Monmouth, Illinois. In 1968, Melvin Redeker, formerly of the Bee Boat Company, bought Sea Sprite and moved production to Crescent City, Illinois, operating as the Sea Sprite Boat Company in 1969. The Sea Sprite Boat Co. eventually became known as United Marine Corporation and was based in Watseka, Illinois. Melvin Redeker sold in 1984 to Robert F. Smith and a fire gutted the factory in 1990 which along with bankruptcy, led to the end of production of Sea Sprite Boats. I have a 1998 Sea Sprite so the company did not stop production in 1990
Ohio Marine of Minerva, Ohio marketed Sea Star Boats before the brand was taken over by the Glastex Company sometime around 1968. Production in Monmouth, Illinois continued until 1981.
Glastex manufactured Ski Star snowmobiles for the 1971 and 1972 model years, with Kohler engines in choices of a 292 single cylinder or a 440 twin cylinder model. There is a strong resemblance and some common part sharing between the Ski Star models and the Boatel Grand Prix models made in Mora, MN.
A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine.
BRP Inc. is the holding company for Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., operating as BRP, a Canadian manufacturer of snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, side by sides, motorcycles, and personal watercraft. It was founded in 2003, when the Recreational Products Division of Bombardier Inc. was spun-off and sold to a group of investors consisting of Bain Capital, the Bombardier-Beaudoin family and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Bombardier Inc., was founded in 1942 as L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée by Joseph-Armand Bombardier at Valcourt in the Eastern Townships, Quebec.
The Ford Sidevalve is a side valve from the British arm of the Ford Motor Company, often also referred to as the "English Sidevalve". The engine had its origins in the 1930s Ford Model Y, and was made in two sizes, 933 cc (56.9 cu in) or "8 HP", and 1,172 cc (71.5 cu in) or "10 HP". The early engines did not have a water pump as standard, instead relying on thermosiphon cooling as the Model T engine had. A water pump was added in 1953 for the 100E models when the engine was re-engineered to the point that few specifications are identical between the early and the later series. The Sidevalve engine was used in many smaller Fords as well as farm vehicles, commercial vehicles and a marine version in boats. Production of the engine was stopped in 1962. Windscreen wipers were often driven by the vacuum generated in the inlet manifold.
Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) was a maker of Evinrude, Johnson and Gale Outboard Motors, and many different brands of boats. It was a multibillion-dollar Fortune 500 corporation. Evinrude began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1907. OMC was based in Waukegan, Illinois. They also owned several lines of boats such as Chris Craft, Lowe Boats, Princecraft, Four Winns, SeaSwirl, Stratos, and Javelin. OMC was also a parent company to Ryan, which made lawn mowers.
Mercury Marine is a marine engine division of Brunswick Corporation headquartered in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The main product line is outboard motors. It also produces the MerCruiser line of sterndrives and inboard motors. Some manufacturing is in Fond du Lac, while 40-60 HP motors are made in China. Smaller motors are Tohatsus that have been rebadged.
Sea Ray Boats is an American manufacturer that produces recreational motorboats. It currently operates as part of the Brunswick Boat Group, a division of Brunswick Corporation.
Philip Leonard Rhodes (1895–1974) was an American naval architect known for his diverse yacht designs.
Cal Yachts was a manufacturer of performance oriented fiberglass sailboats from the 1960s to the 1980s. The Costa Mesa, California, headquartered company was founded in 1957, among the earliest of all-fiberglass, mass-production sailboat builders. Although the brand has been out of production since 1989, the existing fleet is still substantially active in racing and cruising.
The Glasspar boat-building company was started in 1947 when Bill Tritt began building small fiberglass boat hulls in his Costa Mesa, California fiberglass shop.
Nautique is an American boat manufacturer that produces boats primarily for waterskiing, wakeboarding and wakesurfing. With models in the Super Air Nautique and Ski Nautique lines, they are widely considered the gold standard in the inboard towboat market. Owned by parent company, Correct Craft, Nautique is a member of the oldest family-owned and operated boat manufacturer in the world.
Carl Alberg was a Swedish born naval architect known for his influence in early fiberglass boats.
Cox model engines are used to power small model airplanes, model cars and model boats. They were in production for more than 60 years between 1945 and 2006. The business is named for founder Leroy M. Cox. He started L.M. Cox Manufacturing Co. Inc, which later became Cox Hobbies Inc., then Cox Products, before being sold to Estes Industries, when it became Cox Models. On February 7, 2009, Estes Industries stopped producing Cox engines and sold all of their remaining inventory – mainly spare parts – to several private buyers from Canada and the US. One of the new owners of the remaining Cox engine and parts inventory has launched a website with an online store.
Stevens Brothers Boat Builders and Designers company, an American boat designer, began in the back yard of brothers Theodore and Robert Stevens. Their boatbuilding firm in Stockton, California operated from 1902 to 1987. Over the years the company became famous for its elegantly designed pleasure craft, including sailboats, speedboats, cruisers and private yachts. Stevens Bros. also built many vessels for the U.S. military, especially during World War II. The company's first vessel was the sloop Dorothy, in 1902.
Chaparral Boats was founded in 1965 by William "Buck" Pegg and Reggie Rose in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The company's bellwether boat at the time was the 15-ft Tri-Hull with a sticker price of $675. Although the tri-hull was discontinued in the early 1980s, many remain in commission today.
Z1 Boat is a brand of luxury yacht tender manufactured in the United States. Most notably, the 23 foot sportsboat, with a V-hull design made of fiberglass or Carbon / Kevlar laminate schedule, with an inboard motor, foot controls, and side steering console. The speedboats are manufactured by Z1 Boats, Inc.
Meguro motorcycles were built by Meguro Manufacturing Co motorcycle works (目黒製作所), founded by Hobuji Murato and a high-ranking naval officer, Takaji Suzuki, in 1937. One of the first Japanese motorcycle companies, it became a partner of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, and was eventually absorbed. Named after a district of Tokyo, Meguro had its roots in Murato Iron Works, which was established in 1924. Meguro Seisakusho, which had once developed a copy of a Harley-Davidson V-twin, was established to design and build gearboxes for the nascent Japanese motorcycle industry. Abe Industries, which had once produced its own motorcycle, merged with Meguro in 1931. The brand is being revived by Kawasaki with a new K3 model to be introduced in Japan on February 1, 2021.
Trojan Yachts is (1949–1992) a US manufacturer of motorboats, with offices and production facilities in Lancaster Pennsylvania, Elkton Maryland and Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario Canada.
Malibu Boats is an American manufacturer of recreational boats, founded in Merced, California in 1982, and currently headquartered in Loudon, Tennessee with additional production facilities in New South Wales, Australia. Malibu is "the world's largest manufacturer of watersports towboats", used both recreationally and in water skiing and wakeboarding events.
Crash boats, at the time known as "aircraft rescue boats" or "air-sea rescue boats", were wooden speedboats built to rescue the crew of downed United States and other Allies aircraft during World War II. US boats came from the observation of British experience with high-speed launches during the Battle of Britain.
The Sea Sprite 23 is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by Carl Alberg as a daysailer and cruiser and first built in 1958.