TOPIC: Who has the oldest Fiberglass boat?

When was the first fiberglass boat made? My oldest one is 1957. Not the oldest by several years. Who developed the polyester resin? Who invented the process? What came first the resin or the spun glass cloth and mat? Who said "Hmmm....I bet we could make boats out of that crap!"

Invest in Plastics! It's going to be big!

I know..."just use Google" but the real question is, who on Fiberglassics has the oldest boat?

my oldest on is a 1952 viking 14ft fiberglass runabout

always thad

There has been tons written about the origins of fiberglass boats. The book by Peter Hunn "Tail Fins and Two Tones" is good as is the book by Daniel Spurr "Heart of Glass".

Ray Greene of Toledo is generally credited with making the first reinforced fiber plastic boat in 1942. He was working with Owens-Corning. Winner Mfg. Co. of Trenton, NJ was making them in 1945. They displayed their "Plasticraft" boat at the New York Boat Show in January 1946. Wizard Boats, Inc. in California bought the tooling of Chemold about 1947. Chemold was making RFP boats circa 1946. There were several others making them in the 1940s.

The original RFP boats were not glass. The fiber was something else. Someone was using jute.

Contrary to published information, Franklin Winter and Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Co. of Tomahawk, WI was NOT the pioneer of RFP boats. Not even close. Nor did Molded Fiber Glass Companies (MFG) pioneer RFP boats as their website indicates.

My oldest RFP boat is 1965 and my newest one is 1966. My oldest wooden boat is 1932.

Andreas

Considering one of the pioneers of Fiberglass boats chose "Plasticraft" as a name, would explain a lot as to why non-wooden boats were shunned at first.