What, No Dreamboats?

The 25,000 people who attended the opening of the first postwar National Motor Boat Show in Manhattan last week hoped to be dazzled by sleek new dreamboats. But what they saw amid the pillars of the Grand Central Palace looked very much like the models they had seen there in 1940, at the last show. Those who looked sharp, however, could find some improvements and a few new models.

One of the few oldtime boatbuilders with a completely new postwar line was the Richardson Boat Co., Inc. of Tonawanda, N.Y. Instead of the traditional frame-and-plank construction, Richardson was showing 25-ft. cabin cruisers of molded mahogany plywood (price: $4,500 & up). Less conventional and less expensive (under $4,000) was the 26-ft. Steelcraft, an all-steel, welded hull cabin cruiser made by West Haven, Conn.'s Churchward & Co.

The trend toward new materials and new construction methods was best shown in small boats. On hand were: unsinkable aluminum "Air Skiff" dinghies made by Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc. (price: $250 & up); Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp.'s new aluminum dinghy, along with its older aluminum canoe; magnesium rowboats of the Dow Chemical Co.

Gar Wood Jr., son of famed Speed-boater Gar Wood, had plans for a one-piece, leakproof fiberglass boat. But he does not expect to get into production till spring.

New Prices. Most breathtaking things in the show were the prices. A few hours before the show opened, many exhibitors were still waiting to see competitors' prices before announcing their own. The figures they finally set ran upwards of 50 to ,60% above prewar. Example: the largest boat in the show, a 46-ft. Wheeler, had sold for $15,000 in 1940. The "improved model" was quoted at "around $30,000" last week.

Even at these prices, boatbuilders claimed that they had more orders than they could fill, despite expanded production (Chris-Craft was operating five factories v. three before the war). But most manufacturers, still plagued by critical shortages of mahogany and other woods, had not yet made enough boats to test the size of the market. Said the sales manager of one big company: "Costs are still going up and prices will probably go up some more. In a luxury business like this the whole market could be swamped in two minutes by a slight change in economic conditions."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.