Davidson (Arizona)
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Davidson Boats
130 North Gila
Yuma, Arizona
The following history was submitted by Tim Brewer:
Davidson boats were made from the late 50s to 1970 in Yuma AZ. My model is just called a Runabout. They were designed listed as a fish and ski boat designed for river use.
Spun fiberglass construction and from 1959 on were powered with Johnson 75 V4 electric start motors. At 15 ft they were considered one of the fastest boats on the local waters.
Davidson boats are a traditional closed bow design. Some interesting features are a built in, stern mounted 20 gal gas tank, all fiberglass flooring,molded passenger and driver footwells and a water ballast chamber running from bow to stern. The water blast fill is located in the bow section, center floor. The seating was driver and passenger, back to back fold down seats.
The manufacturer was an Evinrude dealer that started off making fiberglass truck bed toppers and moved into boat design. An article in the Yuma Daily Sun from Sunday 26 January 1958 said they had built 37 boats in 1957. The article talked about them using spun fiberglass to make their boats.
The boats were designed for use on the Colorado River.
I am still researching more company information. The company was run by two brothers, Mike and Pat Davidson.
