Chrysler Historical Information Page

• Lone Star Boats was founded in Grand Prairie, Texas in 1945 by two brothers; Lamar and William Moody. In 1962, Lonestar moved its manufacturing plant to International Parkway, in Plano, Texas.

• To find out more about Lone Star Boats, check out this link: http://www.fiberglassics.com/lonestar/lonestarh.html

• In 1965, Chrysler Corporation purchased Lone Star Boats and continued to use their production facilities in Plano. Chrysler brochures from 1966 have both names -- Lone Star and Chrysler on them.

• Chrysler also bought out West Bend Outboards in January, 1965. This first year, these engines were known as a Chrysler/West Bend outboards.

• After these acquisitions, Chrysler entered the both the boat and outboard markets with their own 1966 model year.

• From 1966 through 1980, Chrysler built thousands of boats in both the sailboat and powerboat divisions. In the sailboat division alone, they built the following classes that I know of:

• In answer to the question, "did Chrysler really build a 30 footer?", The answer is yes and no. The "yes" part is that Chrysler did design one and it was shown at the Toronto Dockside Show in the early 1980s and boasted an impressive amount of volume. It had an innovative interior which featured, among other things, the engine centered over the keel under a swing-up module below the galley sink. The "no" part arises from Chrysler having to get out of the sailboat as part of its corporate restructuring in return for loan guarantees from the U.S. Government. The molds and other tooling were purchased by a Canadian company, Ticon Yachts, and the boat was built as the Ticon 30. It lost a bit of its innovation, notably the engine location, in the transition and wasn't in production for very long. It was too pricey for the 30-foot market and even today asking prices for used ones are in the C$50-60,000 range. A shoal keel version evidently sailed like a dog; it needed the full fin keel to point adequately.

• For more information about the Chrysler/Ticon T-30, check out this page: http://members.tripod.com/sail_ticon/index.html

• One of the reasons for the astonishing success of their sailboat division was the acquisition of Halsey Herreshoff as design engineer for their cruising sailboat line. While many potential owners may have shied away from purchasing a boat from a company better known for building cars, they trusted the Herreshoff name, based on Halsey's deserved reputation in building many other fine yachts.

• There is now a Herreshoff Museum dedicated to Halsey's astonishing success as a yacht designer and builder. To find out more about the museum, check out this link: http://www.herreshoff.org/.

• At the same time, Chrysler also hired talented design engineers Rod Macalpine-Downey and Dick Gibbs to design some of their smaller boats. The original designs for the C-13 "Privateer", C-14 "Dagger", C-15 "Mutineer", and C-18 "Buccaneer" came from their drafting tables.

• Chrysler took great care with the production of its sailboat line. According to a Chrysler employee of that period, "Your history page has brought back many wonderful memories of the 11 years I spent as Materials Manager at the Plano plant. I might tell you a little about the plant. Most boat companies install inboard engines, ship them to their dealers, and expect them to correct mistakes. Chrysler dug a tank in the I-O department with exhaust fans to carry the fumes outside. They put every I-O boat in the the tank for a 10 minute run test and would correct all problems before sending to the dealers."

• "When they started seriously into the sailboat area, they did the same in the back of the plant. All C-22 and C-26 boats were placed in the tank to check for swing and fixed keel leaks."

• "Some fiberglass companies will fix minor crazing by buying special waxes in the color of the gelcoat and buff it into the crazes, but we had a repair line which repaired the gelcoat before shipping."

• "The resin was pumped into a Chromilite Room above the Layup area and formulated into three different curing times---45 minute, 30 minute, and 15 minute. The layup of the shell was done using 45 minute resin. Then, the secondary and structure was accomplished with 30 minute, and finally the last with 15 minute. That way, the entire layup would cure out at the same time, causing one thick layer not three. Lastly, the entire floor area was sprayed with chopped roving to seal it against water. All manufacturing was on a rail with the molds moving to the next stations."

• "The final footprint of the plant was 488,000 square feet under roof. It was quite a sight to walk in the warehouse and see row on row of boats standing on end awaiting shipment. At one time I had the plant site, two warehouses in Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas, two in McKinney, 20 miles north of Dallas, one in Terrell, Texas with boats in them. Since the 20 feet and above plus the large sailboats could not be stored on end, I also had a warehouse in Garland and one in Plano for the larger boats."

• John Lafer, who was the sales manager for Chrysler Sail Boats now lives in Leavenworth, Washington 98826, Phone Number (509) 548-6171. He is no longer concerned with sailing but can probably help with background information.

Thanks go to Michael Connolly for collecting and sending this information. *

• Unfortunately, while the Chrysler Marine Division enjoyed great success, it only lasted until 1980, and the outboard division lasted until 1984.

• According to a Chrysler employee of that period, "We were told that, as part of the government bailout, Chrysler had to sell off all it's neonate related businesses and concentrate on it's auto business. I believe we were the last to go. We all knew it was up for sale....The rest is history."

• When Chrysler finally got out of the boat building business, they sold the Sailboat Division to Texas Marine International (TMI). TMI made boats for a few years, then sold off the small boat business (13' - 18') to Gloucester Yachts and the cruising boat business (20' - 27') to a division of Wellcraft Marine known as Starwind. Here is the contact information for Wellcraft:
  Wellcraft Marine
  2049 Whitfield Park Ave.
  Sarasota, Florida 33580
  Phone Number: 800-755-1099 x469
  Don Abel

• According to the Wellcraft Marine representative, Wellcraft/Starwind discontinued making its boats in 1985, and sold all materials, documentation, rights, etc. for their sailboat division to Gloucester Marine.

• During the time Wellcraft made sailboats, their chief designer was Jim Taylor. Jim is still around and can be reached at 617-631-6235. Jim is best known for his design of the Starwind 19 & 27.

• Wellcraft Marine provided the following source information for the various parts comprising the Starwind boats. They could not confirm whether any of the companies are still in business, or whether these phone numbers are still good, since Wellcraft ceased maintaining information after 1985.

• As mentioned previously, Gloucester Yachts purchased rights to some of the Chrysler sailboat business from TMI initially. Later, when Wellcraft decided to pursue its main line of business, power boats, Gloucester purchased the remainder of the sailboat business from them in 1985.

• Up until 1985, Gloucester was in direct competition with Wellcraft / Starwind for many of the same 'classes'. Gloucester Yachts was manufacturing boats in lengths of 11', 15', 19', 20', 22', 23', & 27'.

• It is important to note that, at the same time, Gloucester also was manufacturing the 15' Mutineer and the 18' Buccaneer. These boats, though manufactured by Gloucester, were of the original R.M. Downie design, and quite different from the Gloucester boats made in the same lengths.

• In 1987, one of the forces behind Gloucester Yachts, Harry Sindle, left Gloucester and formed his own company, Cardinal Yachts, where he continued to make and sell the Mutineer and Buccaneer class boats until 2003. Here is the contact information for Cardinal Yachts:
  Cardinal Yachts Inc.
  7519 Ware Neck Road
  Gloucester, Virginia 23061
  Phone number: 804-693-5928
  E-mail: jhsindle@aol.com
  Harry Sindle

• In 2003, Nickels Boat Works purchased the molds for the Buccaneer and Mutineer. They have already begun fabricating the Buccaneer. To see a Buccaneer being built, check out this link: www.nickelsboats.com/inproc1_bucc.html. Here is a link to their main Buccaneer page: www.nickelsboats.com/buccaneer.html. My understanding is that Nickels Boat Works will begin building the Mutineer in 2004. Here is the contact information for Nickels Boat Works:
  Nickels Boat Works
  2426 South Long Lake Road
  Fenton, MI 48430
  Phone number: 810-750-1855
  General Information: info@nickelsboats.com
  Sales: sales@nickelsboats.com
  Support info@nickelsboats.com

• One last item from the Chrysler fire sale: the Outboard Division was sold to U.S. Marine in 1984, who manufactures and markets the outboards under the FORCE name. Contact information for U.S. Marine is provided below:
  U.S. Marine Corporation
  105 Marine Drive
  Hartford, Wisconsin 53027
  Phone Number: 414-929-5000

• According to a Chrysler employee of that period, "we used Vector Sails manufactured in Chicago on boats through the C-22. There were more expensive sails on the market, and we did use a few, but Ron Blair who owned Blair Fashions in Chicago was a sailing enthusiast and turned the top floor of his building into a sail loft. He would appear at class events, talk someone into using his sails and came out the winner many times. It was said that Ron Blair inherited his money from his family and that Blair Fashions manufactured three lines of clothing for women in three price ranges including lingerie. Also, that they had a contract to manufacture the Bunny costumes for Hefner and the uniforms for the formal Holiday Inn personal. We used to kid him as to whether the spinnakers were "C" or "D" cup.

• Another story about Vector Sails is that Vector had an underwear factory which had lost a major contract with J.C. Penny's to manufacture underwear, and had to create new business lines to keep afloat (sorry for the pun). So Chrysler Boat Corp.contracted them to make sails.

• The second story came from a representative from UK Sails, who has stated that UK Sails has all the specs for the Chrysler sails. UK Sails does have lofts located throughout the US and Canada, but your best bet is to go to their website @ http://www.uksailmakers.com. Here's the UK Sails contact information for my local loft:
  UK Annapolis
  108 Severn Ave.
  Annapolis, MD 21403
  Tel: 410-268-1175
  Fax: 410-268-2071
  E-mail: ukannapolis@uksailmakers.com
  Scott Allan, Alan Drew,
  Drew Donald, Matt Beck, Paul Oler
  

If you have, or know of any other information about the Chrysler Sailboat Division, please send it to me via e-mail by clicking on the "e-mail" button in the left frame.