TOPIC: Skee Craft Boat Co. of Intercourse, PA

Hey all,

Anyone have any literature, news articles, photos, etc... of SKEE CRAFT BOAT COMPANY of Intercourse, PA?

They sound intriguing, especially their location! Maybe a topic for a history article!

As far as I know, they started in the 1950s making wooden boats and ceased to make boats in the mid 1960s. I may not be accurate with this information. Amish craftsmen built the boats, so the rumor goes.

Andreas

A few weeks back I added to the Library a set of 1962 Skee-Craft ad flyers that had come into my possession due an ebay mix-up. I also added 1960 to 1962 Skee-Craft model listings from my copy of the 1963 ABOS publishing Inboard/Outboard Boat Trade-In Guide Blue Book.

www.fiberglassics.com/library/Skee-Craft

I might have a few images of brochures from previous years, but don't have them at hand at the moment.

Yup, I am aware of the stuff in the library here.

Great stuff by the way.

Andreas

Andreas, please pardon my going just a little off-topic here, but I think Andy is doing a great job updating the library. I know it's a lot of work involved on your part, and rarely recognized as such. Just wanted to say thank you. An un-sung hero of the site, if you will.

Very interesting... I live in Middletown, just up the road from Intercourse and haven't heard of this particular model. This area, with the Susquehanna River, was a hotbed of wooden Boating activity in the 1950s and 1960s. A lot of folks around here were working class (With Three Mile Island, the Bethlehem Steel Plant, and Olmstead Air Force Base) and a lot of them, including my grandfather, built their own boats... I will have to ask my father if he is familiar with this particular manufacturer. He was out on the river during the 1960's as a child, doing a lot of boating out on the river from Highspire, PA.

(pardon me, continuing the aside)

Andreas and myself have been the active contributors lately, but there is a whole team of others who worked to transfer existing material from the old library to the wiki format. That was the vast majority of work and set the foundation of the Library as it is now. Some relatively big projects are afoot such as Andreas' research, adding the Mercury Boathouse Bulletins, adding information from the ABOS Publishing Boat Blue Books, and of course organizing the whole lot.

Everyone is adding to the Library now, especially as we add 'Boats in Use' links that search through the Boat Makes that folks list on their profile. Just by editing your profile, adding your boat makes and posting photos of your boat to your profile helps to contribute to the site.

And don't forget, anyone with lots of material to contribute can apply to become an editor of the Library as well. It's relatively simple to learn how, (much like submitting and editing messages in the forum), but takes a little bit of training and tinkering around.

Anyhow, here are images of a 1960, 1961, and unknown-year Skee-Craft brochure snagged from ebay awhile ago.

I certainly didn't mean to "short-change" Andreas, or anyone else for that matter! Guess I should have said you ALL are doing a great job updating the library, please accept my sincere apologies.

Now back to the wood boats!

Skee-Craft had a rather large selection of boats available ! I get up into that area of Pennsylvania once in a while to go to steam machinery shows, and other attractions. It's a very interesting and beautiful section of the country, including many Amish farms.
I note that Intercourse PA is pretty close to Paradise PA . Coincidence? I think not !

63Marlin wrote:

Skee-Craft had a rather large selection of boats available ! I get up into that area of Pennsylvania once in a while to go to steam machinery shows, and other attractions. It's a very interesting and beautiful section of the country, including many Amish farms.
I note that Intercourse PA is pretty close to Paradise PA . Coincidence? I think not !

...also to help you get your geographic location... these two towns are just down the road from the towns of Bird in Hand and Blue Ball...

wow - 12 years ago!

Skee Craft Boat Company filed for Chapter XI Bankruptcy on 13 November 1962. Liabilities included $138,000 to Lancaster County National Bank and $360,000 to many other vendors. Liquidation auction of land and buildings on 24 May 1963 netted $234.00 (yes, two hundred thirty four dollars). Buyer was Appel Ranck Herr and Appel law firm. Inventory of finished and unfinished boats and raw materials and machinery and office furniture netted $24,762.00 on 31 May 1963.

That was the end of Skee Craft

Andreas