Marine plastics

carAqua Boats

Marine Plastics, Inc.

825 NW Eighth Ave.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

One of the unique things about some of the manufacturers of the period is that... they only designed one boat. This is the case of CarAqua.

As you might imagine, there isn't too much history behind a boat that ultimately was designed after a car but there's still some interesting items to talk about.

For instance, the headlights and rings are right from a 1957 Chevy Pickup truck. The grill you see on some models is actually a sticker. Only the VIP model (came with inboard Fageol motor) and the Station Wagon had the "grilled" appearance. The other outboard model didn't have such a grill.

The general design for the carAqua was submitted by Richard C. Bradley in September 1957 to the US Patent Office. See the images of the approved patent below.

Mercury Outboards tested an outboard model of the carAqua on September 19, 1958 and published the results in their Boat House Bulletin series. This publication listed the manufacturer of the carAqua to be Davidson Marine Co. of Tampa, Florida.

According to an October 12, 1957 article in the St. Petersburg Times, the carAqua was designed by Dick Bradley. This article lists Bill O'Keefe as being involved in the development of the carAqua from the beginning. His broker, Don O'Keefe was one of the first dealers for the carAqua. Plans for the carAqua were to eventually produce an amphibious model.

1958 Information