TOPIC: Found a finned fiberglass in the Netherlands.

It is very hard to find a nice "finned " boat from the late 50`s early 60`s in Europe.Only a handfull boatbuilders made an attempt to copy the style of late 50`s US boats. They were not popular at that time so only very small numbers were made.

A few years ago I became aware of a small boatbuilder named Hellwig-German Craft from Düsseldorf that had a small { 13 ft } fiberglass boat in there programm for 1962. It was called the Searider and with a weight of less than 250 LBS it was able to use an outboard up to 50 Hp.

On a big German boatforum I found a picture of the boat from an original catalog. Never saw one in real. As the years went by I thought I would never find one of these Seariders. Untill last Saturday. In a small , craighlist style, advertising a boat was offered as "Batman boat". I normally skip these kind of advertises but somehow it took my attention. I was happily surprised to have found the Searider that I wanted for such a long time.I took it home and after some research I found out that the boat is one of the earliest productions and only a few were made in 1962 only. At this time only 2 examples are known of.

The boat will go in storage for a later planned restoration. Thought it was nice to share some pics in this forum.

Taco Vonk, Netherlands.

Great story and great find!
Love the look of that style, not like anything i've seen in America.

Nice score Taco, that is a very nice addition to your collection. We'd love to see some more pics......

Brilliant!

Andreas

Cool boat, and an even cooler story. Thanks, and best of luck with it!

Frank

Thanks guys, for the friendly comments. One of the nicest things with vintage stuff is indeed the story behind it. When I started collecting I was interested in wooden boats, with "different" lines, only. Since I was aware of this site I became more and more interested in fiberglass also.

I even bought an Albatross Continental MK II, 1962 in Aluminium, recently. Also because of the beautiful story behind this brand of boats.

I will try to share some more pics.

Thanks, Taco.

A copy of the brochure!

Very interesting design. Can we have permission to include this advertisement in the Library section of the site?

Very cool.. Looks like a cross between a Glass Slipper and a Herters Flying Fish... Really unique lines. Congrats!

I will ask the uploader of the original pics in the German forum if this is allowed. There are many more pictures of the full line of this brand from 1960 to 1965, or so.

Taco.

So Doug, tell me please. Is that what one would call a "Slipfish"??
JAG

Wow, great story and very cool boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob