Andy McCutcheon100 Years of Wooden Glory - Garwood
September 6th 2007 09:12
1946 Garwood
Garwood
Garfield Wood not the largest but perhaps one of the most influential boat builders of the twentieth century, never intended to go into the boat building business in the first place.
Today his boats are amongst the most sought after classic boats in the world and the fascinating events that led to the development and production of Garwood boats is one of the most interesting stories in boating history.
Garfield Arthur Wood was born in 1880 and was named after the nation's President and Vice President, James Garfield and Chester Arthur. He was the eldest of 13 brothers and sisters and when his father was just a young boy, his father ran away from home to join the Union Army as a drummer during the American Civil War. It was only fitting then, that he would return home to name his first-born son after America's leaders.
As Gar was growing up in the rural mid-west his father was employed as a ferryboat operator on Lake Osakis in Minnesota.
Gars Father would often take him along to help crew aboard the ferries and frequently a race between ferry boat operators would ensue. It was good for business to have a reputation for speed and the races were taken quite seriously so, young Gar Wood learned early that speed on water meant recognition and fame.
Working alongside his father, Gar also developed a mechanical aptitude far beyond his years and had a penchant for inventing devices to solve mechanical problems. These skills would continue to develop within him and resulted in the registration of hundreds of patents over the course of his lifetime.
One invention and patent however, would create a personal fortune for Gar Wood and in doing so allow him to pursue his love of speed boats and become a racing legend.
By the turn of the century, Gar and his wife Murlen lived in St. Paul Minnesota where he was involved in a number of enterprises including a travelling repair shop hat he used to service industrial machinery and early automobiles. Despite the burgeoning industrial revolution, Gar was on the outside looking in and had not yet begun to prosper from is ideas however, in 1911 at the age of 31, he focused all of his creativity towards a mechanical device that could unload coal trucks and proved to revolutionize industry as we know it today.
Coal was the common fuel for home and industrial use and the only way to unload a coal truck in those days was by hand that was slow and arduous work.
He convinced a local coal company to lend him a truck to experiment with his new invention and with Murlen by his side and their life savings invested in this idea Gar demonstrated his new invention - the hydraulic lift.
His invention attracted the attention of several potential investors who insisted on getting in the truck bed to see how it worked but when Gar dumped them in the street with the pull of a lever, they knew he was onto something and had a marketable product.
So vast was the market demand for the hydraulic lift that Gar built an industrial empire around it.
Soon Gar's eight brothers joined him in his venture and they moved their operations to Detroit where the Wood Hoist Company was established, alongside other emerging industrial giants like Packard, Ford, Dodge and Chalmers. Wood's fortunes grew exponentially and the time seemed right for him to begin pursuing his first love – speed boat racing.
In 1916, at the noonday meeting of the Detroit Exchange Club, Lee Barrett, Secretary of the Miss Detroit Powerboat Association made a plea for a local businessman to provide financial aid to the syndicate by purchasing “Miss Detroit I” and the man that stood up and said he was ready was none other than Gar Wood.
After he agreed to purchase “Miss Detroit I” he left for Algonac Michigan to see her and while he was in Algonac, he purchased the yard that built “Miss Detroit”, known then as the Chris Smith and Sons Boat Company.
For the next six years until 1921, Chris Smith built racing boats under the direction of Gar Wood.
The partnership proved synergetic, with Chris Smith and Sons building the boats and Gar Wood at the helm, they won five straight Gold Cups from 1917-1921 and two Harmsworth trophies in 1920 and 1921.
During the winter of 1921-1922 the rules governing Gold Cup Racing were changed dramatically by the American Power Boat Association that included limiting engine size, length and configuration of hulls. The ruling committee said that they wished to encourage "Gentlemen's Runabouts" that could be used for family recreation as well as racing however, the intended target of these changes was Gar Wood whose advanced hydro-dynamic technology and use of aircraft engines had dominated the “unlimited” Gold Cup race scene since 1917. It was clear that the rule changes were designed to abdicate Gar Wood from the world racing throne.
Gar however, was always poised for a challenge and in this case, he and chief designer Nap Lisee developed an entirely new boat as their version of the gentleman's runabout resulting in the legendary 33' "Baby Gar" Runabout. The new Baby Gar was a superb design. It was a comfortable, safe runabout with a triple cockpit configuration and incorporated all of the performance characteristics of the Miss America race boats with the stepped hull.
So great was the performance capability of the Baby Gar that, from the time it was introduced, some of America's wealthiest sportsmen appealed to Gar Wood to build one for them.
Edward Noble, William Randolph Hearst, John Dodge, Colonel Vincent and P. K. Wrigley were among the first clients to purchase Baby Gars and shortly thereafter Gar Wood was forced to set up an entire line of his Algonac plant to build Baby Gars just to fill special orders.
By 1924 Howard Lyon of New York City had convinced Gar Wood that he should place Baby Gars in regular production and that he would personally sell every one he could manage to build.
Two years later Howard Lyon ran a double page ad in Motor Boating magazine that listed the names of 60 of the world's most prominent sportsmen who were already Baby Gar owners.
What began as an attempt by the APBA to end Gar Wood's domination of the Gold Cup competition, resulted in an entire new line of runabouts that became the coveted play toys of millionaires. Gar Wood was now in the boat building business and the small Algonac Michigan plant was now stretched to capacity.
One year earlier in 1923, Chris Smith and Sons Boat Company broke away from Gar Wood deciding to branch out and operate their own boat building company under the name "Chris Smith Craft", later abbreviated to “Chris-Craft”.
Chris Smith felt that the future of leisure boating lay in building a full range of stock boats on a production basis, thus reducing costs and making them more affordable and available to a broader range of consumers. He was convinced that promotion, advertising and high volumes were the key to achieving his goals.
Gar Wood on the other hand was becoming a mogul industrialist with his expanded manufacturing plants in Detroit. Boats to him were a source of endless pleasure and he wanted to achieve the highest in quality, engineering and performance for those who were able to afford his boats.
So, Chris Smith and Gar Wood parted company with their diverging ideologies and built their own types of boats in tune with their individual philosophies.
Only time would determine who was right.
In 1927 a condensed version of the original Baby Gar was introduced at the National Boat Show in New York. The new 28' Baby Gar was an instant hit and sales exceeded those of the larger 33' model. In addition to these stock runabouts, the small Algonac plant built high speed custom cruisers and the Miss America race boats.
With the small Algonac plant no longer capable of meeting the demand for Garwood boats, Gar decided to build a new factory.
His experience with hydraulic hoist production demonstrated the value of efficiency and their use was incorporated into the new facility’s design. His new manufacturing plant was designed to be the finest boat building factory in the world.
In 1929 at Marysville Michigan, Gar Wood opened his new factory and was capable of producing 1200 custom quality boats a year.
The same exacting standards of quality finish and performance that had been a Garwood tradition would be maintained alongside higher production values and a new range of models. Such was the optimism when the new Garwood factory opened right on schedule just 3 months after the nation was rocked by the stock market crash.
The first production year for Garwood at Marysville included only two basic models: the 28' runabout and the newly designed 22' runabout. The 28' was offered in several configurations that included a limousine, sedan and a landau roof.
The Algonac plant continued to produce the 33' runabout that would be the new stock version of the Baby Gar hull, while a stock 40' Commuting Cruiser was being built at Algonac.
The production line remained the same in 1931 but was expanded in 1932 to include an 18' split cockpit runabout and a very well-received 25' triple cockpit runabout. Both the 28' and 25' runabouts were given the famous Garwood folding V-windshield that would become a hallmark of the brand for the next ten years. This windshield was an extremely well-designed, forward thinking feature that was decades ahead of its time and admired for its aesthetic beauty.
The next model change came in 1934 with introduction of the 16' split cockpit runabout.
Gar Wood had received a personal request from his good friend Edward Noble, owner of the Life-Saver Candy Company. Since 1926 Noble had been speeding along the St. Lawrence River that divides Canada from the USA in his famous 33' Baby Gar "SNAIL". He relayed to Gar Wood that he and several of his friends on the St. Lawrence River were looking for a small sporty racer that would be akin to a water version of the popular European sports cars.
Gar Wood's answer came in the form of a high-speed performer, sixteen feet in length with 2 seats aft of the engine that he called the "Speedster". Its performance and appearance was similar to a scaled down version of a Miss America racer.
Edward Noble fell in love with the boat and the first twelve produced were sent to the St. Lawrence River for Noble and his friends.
Noble’s speedster was christened the "Miss Behave", while others in the group were called "Miss Adventure" "Miss Chief" and "Miss Conduct". Speedster racing became a regular sanctioned event on the St. Lawrence River right up to the beginning of World War II and today, the original "Miss Behave" is showcased in the Thousand Islands Shipyard Museum.
The success of the Speedster made Gar Wood receptive to customer feedback and recommendations.
In 1935 Garwood introduced its first utility models, a 20’ and a 26' family cruiser because their dealers had felt that these models would make the line more popular to the growing numbers of people who were becoming interested in boating as a leisure pursuit.
The trend continued in 1936 as Garwood introduced an 18' Utility and a 32' Express Cruiser. They also offered a streamlined sedan cabin version of the 18' and 20' utility models and the 18' runabout was offered with twin cockpits forward for the first time in this length.
By 1937 boating popularity was growing throughout Canada and the United States. Dealers were expanding their inventories and the outlook was very bright.
The new Garwood catalogue featured a full colour cover and 30 pages filled with photographs of their full range. The utility models proved so popular that in 1937 they introduced a 24' utility that would remain a strong seller for them until 1942. From 1937, a sedan version of the 24’ was also available alongside the newly debuted 19’ runabout, both proving to be extremely popular.
One Year later Garwood revolutionized modern boat design by moving the mid engine concept to that of a rear mounted engine in their 1938 Streamliner. This was manifested in the hull of the 22' runabout with a triple cockpit forward of the engine that was all the way aft, utilizing a Chrysler Crown engine and a special reduction V-drive. This boat had excellent speed capability for its modest sized engine.
The 1939 Garwood Trophy Fleet was introduced with great fanfare at the National Motor Boat Show in New York.
It was the most comprehensive fleet ever offered by any manufacturer and the design detailing on the boats was superb. All runabouts had barrel bows and the utilities showcased the finest styling in the industry. The sedan utilities were unsurpassed for their attractiveness and high customer acceptance, but the biggest surprise of the 1939 fleet however, was the introduction of the 24'6" "Overnighter", a high performance pocket cruiser built on the proven hull of the 24'6" utility.
The massive Garwood display at the National Motor Boat Show was selected by all major boating magazines as the best in their history. Gar Wood was on a roll and production was at its maximum output for the first time since the Marysville plant opened 10 years earlier.
Production continued through 1940 without any changes in their models.
By 1941 the barrel bow styling was given to the 24'6" utility as well as addition of a larger, redesigned windshield. The sedan utilities had mahogany hard tops over their windshields dubbed military visor styling. The 24'6" Overnighter was completely restyled and was the best-looking, high-performance pocket cruiser in America.
Two brand new boats were added to the 1941 range that shared the same 30' hull, one was the unique Commuter and the other was the Commodore, a handsome trunk cabin sport cruiser.
Later that year at age 60, Gar Wood decided that it was time to retire to his island home in Miami Florida. His plans were to continue inventing and designing new products, but to divest himself from Garwood Industries and while some boats were offered for sale in 1942, they were effectively redundant 1941 models. With the onset of World War II the Garwood plant in Marysville was converted entirely towards the war effort producing target boats and military tug boats for the U.S. Navy.
In early 1945 as the War effort wound down to its final few campaigns, a series of advertisements from the "new" Garwood boat division began to appear.
The new management of Garwood Industries decided to restyle their entire range and Norman Bel Geddes, noted industrial designer, was retained to give Garwood boats a completely new look. This was a decision of significance since it meant a total re-tooling of their patterns, costly new set ups and higher production costs.
The new post-war designed Garwood’s were introduced during the 1946 National Motor Boat Show to an enthusiastic and expectant audience.
The designs, although modernized variations of the great Garwood tradition, were expensive.
Production was slowed dramatically by several factors including, lack of access to quality timber and strikes by major suppliers. Shipments were often delayed and production schedules were consistently interrupted by shortages.
Garwood dealers, adding insult to injury, sold their impatient Garwood customers other manufacturer’s boats that weren’t plagued by availability issues.
From that point forward, Garwood Industries concentrated on building the small 16' utility model that featured a white painted hull with negligible bright work. The boat was easy to build and was the lowest priced boat on the line. Other models took longer to build and required a higher grade of quality matched mahogany along with requiring significantly more hardware that was still hard to obtain in 1946 and 1947.
At the 1947 Boat Show, Garwood shocked the boating fraternity by displaying four models that were painted in their entirety – no varnished mahogany.
It is uncertain whether this decision was made for dramatic showmanship to attract attention, or due to the lack of quality mahogany however, in less than 6 months from the time of the boat show Garwood Industries boats would cease production forever.
Before the end of 1947 Truscott Boats and Cygnet Boats in a bid to capitalize on Garwood’s misfortune, introduced a line of boats that were identical to the post-war Garwood designs and within two years, they too were out of business.
Garwood Industries produced boats from 1921 to 1947, excluding the four years of World War II and it is estimated that over 10,000 Garwood boats were constructed during that period.
Today, less than 300 Garwood Boats remain and are registered with the Garwood Society and ACBS, as a result Garwood Boats will always be among the most highly sought after craft among wood boat aficionados and every one is a true classic.
Andy McCutcheon, 100 Years of Wooden Glory. Copyright 2006
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