TOPIC: 1964 Cruisers, Inc. with twin stern drives

1964 Cruisers, Inc. 25 ft. Barnegat wooden lapstrake boat with twin MerCruiser stern drives

Andreas

That is "Big Pimpin'" right there. Dual screws on a wood boat wow!

One of these Cruisers, Inc. baots with the twins was at the Thompson Antique & Classic Boat Rally a few years ago.

Bill Luedtke of Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo, WI has told me a story of a wooden lapstrake 24 ft. Thompson with twin I/O MerCruisers at the Chicago MTEC Show about 1965. This was the September trade only show. He was giving rides to dealers and prosepctive dealers on Lake Michigan and a little go-fast boat kept passing him. After several passes they "raced" and Bill told his passenger to hold on to his hat. He opened her up and just flew past the other boat. The other boat happened to be a Donzi Sweet 16. Bill had been taking it easy earlier but wanted to show this prosepctive dealer what a "real boat" would do! That passenger signed up as a dealer for Thompson as soon as they reached land!

Andreas

That's an interesting story on many levels. Had to have been embarassing for the Donzi :~)
The first one coming to my mind, though, is that it was the last golden moment of wood. By '65 in S.E. Wisconsin wood would have been a difficult sell...beach fires were in full swing.