![]() ![]() Some of this nations finest, most stylish speedboats came from Johns factory. Hacker had a similar beginning, opening his own boat building plant. These techniques were helpful in making pleasure boating a sport in which thousands could take part. By 1930 he and his four brothers operated five huge plants using techniques adapted from Henry Fords revolutionary assembly line process. Christopher Columbus Smith, for example, was building small wooden duck boats on the shore of his beloved St. The famous builders – Chris Craft, Dee Wite, Hacker Craft, Sea Lyon, Ramely, Gar Wood, Belle Isle Bear Cat – all started their businesses during this period. The hulls of the real runabouts were the semi-vee planing type. Prior to 1924, most so-called runabouts were really only glorified launches, being displacement or at least semi-displacement hulls. Current authorities on the subject seem to disagree on when the first true speedboat appeared, and my own observations have led me to conclude that the era was ushered in around 1924, and that its peak was reached around 1951 or 1952. The origins of the true runabout are somewhat clouded and vague. The International Mari-time Dictionary defines runabout as ∺ small open or decked motor boat with a length ranging usually from 16 to 30 designed particularly for fast day runs of not more than a few hours in sheltered waters, but the sight of a 30 runabout today is a rare one indeed, when most of us think of the runabout as the small out-board speedboat. ![]() I regret having missed the Golden Age of luxurious speedboats, and Ive often wished that I’d been born in the 20’s or 30’s, when I could have really enjoyed the thousands of flashy, high-powered inboards that roared across the nations waterways. Like so many others in my generation, I was awestruck by the sight and sound of a sleek and shiny Gar Wood, Hacker, Dee Wite, or Chris Craft. Growing up in the early 1950s, I always seemed to be interested in just one type of pleasure craft, the inboard speedboat. ![]()
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