http://www.v-drivevideo.net/pictures...n_boats_ad.jpg
Printable View
Very cool thread! Thanks for posting the pics and articles! Kind of makes you long for the "good old days" doesn't it?
Wow what a lovely thread! So cool all these classics :)
Shortly after WWII, lot of boat builders popped from the guys that worked in the aircraft plants and they built aluminum power boats. Feathercraft was on of the largest.
Attachment 25665
Attachment 25666
Attachment 25667
Attachment 25668Attachment 25666
Heres a couple of project boats for you Jerry.
This are pre plywood and batten construction. These are frame and plank with a veneer cover.
You can see the 1" thick planks on the sides.
Guess would be around 1950 ish.
Attachment 25704
Attachment 25705
Attachment 25706
I am pretty sure this one is a very early Mandella, prior to Joe build plywood boats for Rudy and his dad
Attachment 25707
Attachment 25708
Attachment 25709
Nice work there Bob..............any 'before' photos?
Those boats are really cool!
I think Joe Mandella was the first guy in the game and sometime in the 50's a few builders started to pop up. I don't think there were more than a dozen or so Hot Rod boat builders until after 59 or so. Where's Harlan when we need him. :) Thanks for posting those!:thumbup:
:party-smiley-020:
As a newbie to boating forum posting I am on my BEST behavior... :thumbsUp:
Joe was building planked and veneered boats like those posted, and the one with Bob Nordskog with the skier. Nordskog's Wimsey was a planked boat as well.
Heavy SOB and they were limited to the hull shape.
Around 1950 or so he build Rudy a plywood on frame battens, like you see in a wood cracker, where the plywood is a structural component of the build and there is no planking. By around 54-55, Jack Sanger, Len Schiada, Rusty and Bill Biesemeyer, Mack Stevens, Fred Wickens, Bob and Tom Patterson, were in. The game changer was after Joe's death in 56, with Rudy and his dad laying up glass hulls around 57 and selling them in 58. I think only Campbell bros & the Biesemeyers managed to make a glass boat in 59. Others started slowly getting into them around '60.
Between 1950 and 1960, there was some quantum leaps in the performance boat business. Most of them done by Joe, then later by Rudy and his dad.
I think this is from 79
Attachment 25728
These were fairly popular.
Attachment 25729
Ok I gotta ask, where do you find this stuff? It is in your garage? Pretty cool classic stuff for sure.