Featured Artifact
2008 BOAT OF THE YEAR.
The 1950s were an era of boundless technological optimism. Designers of homes, appliances, automobiles and boat had a host of new materials at their disposal and large numbers of new customers who wanted their products. The styling trends in 1950s automobiles quickly carried over into pleasure boating, and nowhere was this more evident than in tailfins.
The full model name of this remarkable boat was the "Herter's Chrome Fiberglas Duofoil World Famous Walk-Through Deluxe Model Flying Fish Runabout." It was guaranteed by its manufacturer "to be the fastest standard grade runabout of this size in the world (and) unconditionally guaranteed to outperform and outmaneuver any runabout costing three times its price."
Herter's was a well-established manufacturer and mail-order retailer of sporting goods from Waseca, Minnesota, who, by the mid-1950s, had also gone into the boat business. They were an early manufacturer of fiberglass boats, and took full advantage of the material's capacity to create flamboyant shapes.
Their substantial catalogue lists virtually everything a boat owner or sportsman could want, from fiberglass cloth and resin to paint to polish to complete boats to racks, lights, trailers and other accessories. They even manufactured special holders for facial tissue, cigarettes and lighters which could easily be attached to your new boat. Our thanks go out to Joni and Bob Beers for lending their remarkable "Tartanic" to help us celebrate boats of the 1950s.
The 1950s were an era of boundless technological optimism. Designers of homes, appliances, automobiles and boat had a host of new materials at their disposal and large numbers of new customers who wanted their products. The styling trends in 1950s automobiles quickly carried over into pleasure boating, and nowhere was this more evident than in tailfins.
The full model name of this remarkable boat was the "Herter's Chrome Fiberglas Duofoil World Famous Walk-Through Deluxe Model Flying Fish Runabout." It was guaranteed by its manufacturer "to be the fastest standard grade runabout of this size in the world (and) unconditionally guaranteed to outperform and outmaneuver any runabout costing three times its price."
Herter's was a well-established manufacturer and mail-order retailer of sporting goods from Waseca, Minnesota, who, by the mid-1950s, had also gone into the boat business. They were an early manufacturer of fiberglass boats, and took full advantage of the material's capacity to create flamboyant shapes.
Their substantial catalogue lists virtually everything a boat owner or sportsman could want, from fiberglass cloth and resin to paint to polish to complete boats to racks, lights, trailers and other accessories. They even manufactured special holders for facial tissue, cigarettes and lighters which could easily be attached to your new boat. Our thanks go out to Joni and Bob Beers for lending their remarkable "Tartanic" to help us celebrate boats of the 1950s.
