9/25/2023 0 Comments Runabout boats manufacturersThe Luger boats came with decks available in any of three color options: Tropic Coral Bali Blue or Harbor Green, all with a Harbor White hull. The only tools needed were a screwdriver and a hand drill. The joints were then reinforced from the inside of the boat with fiberglass mat and resin. Luger advertising claimed that it could be “easily assembled in one enjoyable evening!” The three main pieces were interlocking and after assembly were screwed together with stainless steel screws. The basic kit came in three pieces: the deck, the hull, and the upper hull. Their initial offering in 1959 had three models: the Skylark, an open utility type boat the Royal Lancer, with seat backs and a walk-through front seat and the Le Continental, their top of the line runabout with all of the features expected to be included on a premium boat in this market. ![]() They were easy to build, cost up to 60% less than a manufactured boat, and most importantly, had all of the good looks and styling features of a professionally built boat. The new fiberglass kit line from Luger would change the way kit boats were perceived by the boat buying public. While a kit boat looked right at home in 1955, by 1958 the kits were looking slightly behind the times. ![]() While fiberglass and aluminum boats were a novelty in the early fifties, within a few short years they had taken over the market. Towards the end of the fifties, the recreational boating market had changed dramatically. ![]() Some of the plans could be bought as frame kits, so at least the general shape and structure of the boat had the potential of being correct. This built from scratch approach, while seemingly more economical, took vast amounts of skill, and by the time you were finished, had every bit as much money invested as the kits. The garage would become a place where the guys in the neighborhood could come on a cold winter evening and discuss the merits of the Johnson versus the Mercury, or more likely in this atmosphere, the Buccaneer and the Wizard.įor those inclined to think that kits were the only avenue for those whose skill level matched their desire to be on the water will have to look towards another market: boat plans. Maybe this is also where the habit of leaving the family automobile outside over those cold Minnesota winters began, leaving enough room in the garage for a nice sized boat shop. While not for everyone, this was boating at a cost level that almost everyone could enjoy. ![]() Looking back at the market, these home-built plywood outboard boats were very comparable in both looks and performance to the professionally built outboard boats turned out by the manufacturers. Before this, the kit-boat industry was composed almost entirely of boats made of marine grade plywood fastened to hardwood frames.Īt the start of the post World War II boating boom, these kits were extremely popular, not only with the average do-it-yourselfer, who felt that he could build anything better himself, but also with those boaters who now had the leisure time and necessary skills to build their own boat out in the garage. The kit-boat market, never really feared by the front line boat manufacturers, was about to change with the introduction of Luger’s new fiberglass boat kits. In the late fifties, when most of the players in the recreational boating market had either sputtered to an inglorious halt, or had elevated themselves into that group that were writing their success stories, Luger Industries of Minneapolis made a bold move that would launch them into the winners circle.
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