TOPIC: Beaver Boat Company - was in Cape Girardeau,MO

I am seeking any history of....etc. Beaver Boat Company once located in Cape Girardeau, MO. that manufactured the 17' "Classic Beaver Custom" Inboard ski boat. I am restoring one that was built in 1965. It has a 392 cu. in. Chrysler Hemi engine from a 1958 Chrysler Imperial. The engine was installed by Beaver Boat and Engine Company of Detroit, MI. There is no company information on Beaver Boat and Engine Company that I have been able to find online. There is one picture (see below) of a Classic Beaver Custom that I found on the old Fiberglassics site but the administrator has disabled write access. The other pic's are the one I am restoring. I will greatly appreciate any input on one or both companies or contact with anyone that had or still owns one of these boats.

TX, Ken

Ken,
My wife and I own the Beaver in your first picture. That was taken at the 2015 Chesapeake Bay Chapter annual ACBS boat show at St. Michaels. I too seek any information regarding these boats. I have had no luck so far. I did find an Olds engine from Beaver Boat and Engine Company supposedly built for racing. We have a 283 Chevy engine and now aluminum headers.
We purchased the boat in Holland, Michigan ~2012.

Thank you for your pic's and input. I haven't checked my Email for almost 4 weeks, my wife has been very ill. Your boat looks to be in excellent condition. Did you have to do much restoration on it? I have stripped mine to the hull and am starting cleanup in the bilge. Lots of grinding but it will be worth it. The quality of glass finish work was not to great but these boats are bullet proof. The bottom is at least 1-1/2" thick at 10 layers of ocean grade fiberglass weave. These boats probably didn't need stringers, they are so strong. I wanted to keep the HEMI but at 30+K to meet marine spec's. I went instead with a 360 cu in Chrysler. It is custom built by the individual that used to be the Chrysler engine fix it guru. He restores all types of marine engines but specializes in Chryslers. His job at Chrysler was to correct any engineering mistakes before a particular engine went into production. His suggestions and or physical modifications saved Chrysler mega millions of dollars. His business MURLEY'S MARINE is located in Fair Haven, MI just across the road from Lake St. Claire. He knew of Beaver Boat as a car engine to boat bolt-on conversion company. It is a miracle that this Beaver is till in existence. The HEMI had an open sparking brush generator, non-sealed starter, auto carb, and a non sealed distributor. Maybe our boats are the only two that didn't blowup? I am in the beginning stages of restoration. Cleaning up the bilge. Lots of grinding. The person in the pic's is my nephew. He is the LYMAN BOAT guru of the Mid West. His specialty is restoring all types of wooden boats and some fiberglass. His business is CUSTOM MARINE INC. in Sandusky, OH. I am in the process of trying to get some business records if they still exist for BEAVER BOAT and ENGINE COMPANY from the city of Detroit. Will let you know if I get any results.

Hi there. I also have a Beaver custom inboard. I believe my great uncle bought it new in 1960. It had a 1958 283 Chevy with Corvette valve covers. The original motor was ruined in the late 80's or early 90's. I replaced it with an 84 305. We repainted the red and polished the white. New seat vinyl and cleaned up the rest.

Thank you EdR for your pic's and description. I now know what the original color scheme is. When stripping the layers of paint to the base colors of white with the red detailing, I encountered a brown coat under the last coat of white paint that covered the entire boat. Not sure where the brown came from. It appears that small block Chevy's were the engine of choice. I suspect that the Hemi was an after thought and replaced a small block. The Hemi definitely motivated my boat. Was clocked at 59 MPH one time and that was with the engine running on 7 good cylinders. I would like to find original hull Beaver badges. I did find a new black anodized spec plate on the internet. The splash rails on mine must be add-on’s. We are going to modify the chines with a reverse angle to throw most of the spray forward and back to the water surface. This will significantly reduce or eliminate spray into the boat. Even with the splash rails, the rear seat still got a lot of spray. Ed is your boat pretty dry or is there a lot of spray into the back of it? Again, thanks for your input and I will post pic's of the restored boat when we are finished.
Sincerely,
Ken

Unfortunately I didn't get to play with it much. The transmission broke some pieces on the new maiden weekend I am waiting for the machine shop to make new ones so I'm not sure how wet the back seat gets. I also don't remember from my youth. My boat seemed to have brown under the red. I thought maybe it was just bad red that had been painted over. I am fairly sure that my boat was low hours and not modified and just the way my uncle got it. If you need more pictures to help you with your restoration, please let me know.

Also, looking at the builder tag, I believe the Hemi is the motor that trans was built for. My tag has CH-129 and reverse gear 750. I think CH stands for Chevrolet and CHR stands for Chrysler.

Hi Ken. Not sure if this post is still active or if you'll get this message. I've just acquired a 63 Beaver Custom. I'd be interested in connecting, as I have some questions. My name is Craig McCool and I'm near Ann Arbor. You can email me (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or you can find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/craig.mccool.9

I've recently acquired a Beaver (63 Custom, ~18 ft, small-block Chevy w/ a 'Beaver Boat Marine Engine' trans. I have some questions and would love to connect if this thread is still active! My email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. On Facebook, too: www.facebook.com/craig.mccool.9/videos/10159374218713839 . I'm outside of Ann Arbor.