Kaiser Aluminum

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Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Sales, Inc.

300 Lakeside Dr.

Oakland, California

Henry J. Kaiser explored many marine designs through his Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. An aluminum-supplier to many metal boat manufacturers, in 1961 Kaiser designed a series of 9 experimental boats (Jan 1961 MotorBoating). Kaiser Aluminum's Department of Industrial Design drew up the boats from a 15' runabout to a 35' express cruiser. Two prototypes were built by Valco and McKenzie Boat Co. (May 1961 Modern Metals). Kaiser and Reynolds aluminum sponsored three aluminum boats to be shown at the 1961 Chicago Boat Show. Carl W. Leveau, the marine sales manager for Kaiser presented the KX-919-1 inboard runabout, built by McKenzie Boat Co. (May 1961 Modern Metals). Another 15' experimental aluminum boat was designed, built, and shown by Reynolds Aluminum. "Lindy" H.V. Lindbergh was Kaiser's assistant and manager of many of Kaiser's experimental and design projects with many of the boat project's files housed in his personal records (| Finding aid to the Henry J. Kaiser papers, Online Archive of California).

The 1961 series of boats included:


 * KX-515, 15' outboard runabout


 * KX-717, 17' outboard runabout


 * Gala, 18' outboard cruiser


 * KX-19, 18' inboard runabout


 * Hawaii Kai, 22' catamaran sports fisherman


 * Fiesta, 23' inboard cruiser


 * Enchante, 28' inboard cruiser


 * Nepenthe, 32' houseboat


 * Elegance, 35' express cruiser

More information on these boats can be found in cartons 142 and 143 (H.V. Lindbergh Files) of the Henry J. Kaiser Papers archive at the |UC Berkeley Bancroft Library.

'Photos

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