TOPIC: EARLY Fiberglass Thompson Boat or ? Not Sure

Hi all, I'm trying to figure this out and am stumped. It's an EARLY boat- lots of wood on it- the keel is wood and then there are METAL SPINES, four of them (two each side of the keel) running down the hull. Ordinarily you see this sort of unusual building techniques on a boat that is lacking interior structure, but this boat is not lacking structure at all. Two big wooden knees that tie into traditional stringers.

Anyhow, THOMPSON ca. 1955 is my best bet I have come up with- I just can't find any other "T" makers and am guessing that the "T" on the decal is the company name. I have yet to figure out what the lower font R and C stand for.

All in all, the boat is pretty light, needs some work, but everything is all there. She's a 17 footer with a pretty narrow beam for a boat that long, and note how the bow curls UP so this could be a "big water" boat.... Any help appreciated

Maybe it's just RC and that's not a T but a sword design with the shield? Ray Craft?

It's a rubber boat, not fiberglass, made by Thompson Royal-Craft, Inc. at Cortland, NY. Built between 1959 and 1962. I beleive this is the "Nantucket" model.

Thompson Royal-Craft was an affiliate of Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. at Cortland. It was a short lived firm. Glenn R. Thompson was the original president with his cousins Ted, Jr. and Bob Thompson as co-owners. Glenn departed in mid-1960 and retrned to Peshtigo, WI.

These utilized US Rubber Company's "Royalite" rubber material for the hull. A few boat builders used this material for a few short years: Thompson Royal-Craft; Crestliner; Carter Craft... The material tended to deform out in the sun.

The known Thompson Royal-Craft brochures/flyers are avialable for purchase on the Thomspon Bros. Boat CD-ROM from www.wcha.org

I am aware of only a handful of these boats that exist today; a few canoes and row boats. I have seen photos of one other runabout like this one.

Andreas

Wow Andreas- that is outstanding- thank you very much for that history. I had a feeling it was a weird one. I mis-wrote that I "couldn't think of any other T makers"- I did spend a considerable time scouring the library and then surmised that the "RC" must have been for ROYAL CROWN given the crown right above it. never thought of "craft".

And I read about how Thompson issued a reportedly "half hearted" initial fiberglass effort in 1955- this boat to me does not seem half hearted but rather stoutly built- overkill if you will. but maybe that was due to fears about how rubber would wear over time.

Now to figure out what to do with it. It was just stored out of the sunlight for ten years and I'll stow it away in my barn and keep it safe. This is a little bit beyond my skills as far as the wood involved in restoring it, but I'm sure someone will want it at some point. Or I'll have to pay to get help with it.

But anyway, is this a boat that, given the condition it's in, do you think it would be safe to run once everything is checked over and what wood needs replacing is taken care of and everything is ship shape? I kind of like the idea of running a RUBBER boat in a boat show some day!

Jon

just wondering if the rubber, even if it appears in decent unwarped shape like this boat, would be safe to run nowadays

I can't see why it would not be OK to run her when she is ship shape. I know of several Thompson Royal-Craft canoes that are used regularily. A canoe is quite different than a speedboat of course.

The "royalite" watercraft was done at Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. of Cortland, NY and NOT at Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. of Peshtigo, WI. These were seperate firms that actually competed against one another.

The 1955 half hearted fiberglass boat program at Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. fell apart quickly. The boats were made for Thompson by Pla-Tank Corp. in Massachuesetts. Most of Thompson's factory was destroyed by a major fire in late March 1955. I think they focused on rebuilding and concetrating on what they knew - wooden boat - after the fire.

I have never seen nor heard of one of those 1955 Thompson fibrglass boats in existance. I know they made a few.

Andreas