Bob Hammond
Salute! Let's take time to again say
thanks to Glastron
founder Bob Hammond and his right hand man and marine industry
pioneer
in his own right Bill Gaston. I'm happy to report both are
still doing well and still live in the Austin area. Bob was
recently honored
by the National Marine Marketers Association in its Innerport
publication. A highlight is the interview posted there where Bob
and his wife Bettye
answer some fascinating questions.
Here's
the link and the
interview starts about page 12 and note the jump from page 14 to
18.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to finally make available
for everyone the Glastron Refloat reunion history booklet that
was made available
first to the generous and supportive Gold and Platinum members.
This booklet was created for the 1995 Glastron employees reunion
and is a fascinating and thorough look at the beginnings of what
would become the largest boat company in the world. Please
consider
supporting the club by becomming a Gold Member today at a special
price More Info. Thanks and here's
the link.
Fiberglass boats had their beginnings just after World War II and owe their technology to processes that came about during the war effort and continued afterward. Such was the case with Mr. Bob Hammond, whose original ideas became Glastron boats.
After the war Mr. Hammond was working with Douglass aircraft's tooling department using the latest plastics methods. After a few years he broke away from Douglass looking for a way to "utilize" his skills with plastics and the relatively new fiberglass materials. He joined on with Lone Star boats in Grand Prairie Texas around 1953. Mainly a manufacturer of aluminum boats, Lone Star would benefit greatly from Mr. Hammond's contributions to its new fiberglass models. The famous Meteor was one of Bob's designs. Bob, however, dreamed of something more. Like so many of the great entrepreneurs that from small beginnings became great companies, Mr. Hammond wanted to step out with his own design of boat. Lone Star's fiberglass models were mainly fishing boats whereas Bob had ideas of a more advanced design with newer and better performance, styling and features. After a few years at Lone Star, he joined forces with Bill Gaston, an Austin Texas boat dealer already very involved with the boat industry of the time. Also joining them was Mr. Robert Shoop, owner and manager of Capitol Casket Co., and Mr. Guy W. Woodward, owner of and adhesives company that marketed products used in fiberglass manufacturing. With the combination of these men's business savvy, knowledge of materials, design, and marketing, and the rising market for durable, maintenance free fiberglass boats, a nucleus was formed for a company destined to great success.
Bill Gastron & his wife in front of their business in 1961
Bill Gaston Enterprises existed before the formation of Glastron and still exists to this day, although not currently involved with boating. Bill Gaston's loyal secretary,
Frances Robinson, is still hard at work too.
1956 At night after work Mr. Hammond designed and tooled a prototype in a rented garage in Arlington Texas. (Arlington and Grand Prairie are the two main cities between Dallas and Fort Worth). One of the first employees was a young stock clerk named Mel Whitley. The reward for his labor was one of the first boats to be made. Mel told Bob that he wanted to come join the company and so another key member of the founding team joined on. The boat was a fabulous 15 ft. model and was put through strenuous testing in Gulf of Mexico waters off the Texas coast. After passing with flying colors and securing $25,000 from investors, the corporation was officially created on October 14, 1956. Right away they were ready to start production. Bob and his wife Bettye liked the Austin area where Gaston's boat business was already located. With big Lake Travis and the smooth Town Lake right nearby, it was an excellent choice for a place to build the company. Initially, the company name was set up as Standard Glass Products due to the combination with Shoop's casket company. One evening Bob and Bettye were out driving and Bettye came up with the idea of combining "Glas", representing the new material, and "Tron", which sounded high tech, and the Glastron name was born. By the end of 1956, sales of $12,262 were recorded, representing 24 boats produced for 1956. They essentially broke even, a remarkable feat considering start up costs and only two months of production. An interesting note is that for the 1982 Glastron catalog the company celebrated a 25th anniversary noting "1957 - 1982" By 1996 apparently the history became clearer and the 1996 catalog celebrated the 40th anniversary with dates on the front of the catalog: "1956 - 1996".
1957
Glastron Fireflite
There were two models offered for the 1957
model year, both based on the 15 footer designed and developed by
Hammond
in Arlington Texas. The Fire-flite sedan was a deluxe model with fine
upholstery,
custom polished aluminum side spears and other pieces, a panoramic
windshield,
full lighting, flotation, bow bumpers, stern handles and more. The
second
model, the Surf-flite, was a utility version for fishing with standard
front bench seat and lots of storage compartments for gear. Optional
built-in
bait wells could also be added. One of the first of MANY innovations
pioneered
by Glastron was the offering of several deck colors to choose from, not
just one like all the other companies. These '57 models could be bought
with deck colors of Matador red, Fire orange, Charcoal gray or Aqua
blue.
Read
more about the super smart business moves that Bill Gaston made in
these crucial early years.
For the
1958
model
year they added the 14'6" Skiflite for the entry level boater and
the
17'
Seaflite with an industry first hardtop. (See 1960 Fireflite in this
site
for a view of how the hardtop worked). A 14' Fisherman was also added
using
the Skiflite hull. This was the year that the chrome mylar side panel
was
added to the hull sides. ( Compare to the 1957 Chevy!) In the summer an
event occurred that seemed to make everyone take notice of Glastron.
Three
employees of an Austin newspaper undertook a 2,600 mile 10 day trip
from
Houston to New York in the new 17' Seaflite using Johnson Outboards.
(Probably
using twin motors) National attention was drawn to Glastron's rugged
products.
1957 ended with production of 900 boats and $471,000 in sales with
after-tax
earnings of $40,529. Glastron was on its way.
For the 1959 model year sales zoomed to a 400% growth rate. Production and storage space had to be constantly added. A satellite production site was acquired in Madison Indiana but struggled with some high overhead costs. Eventually and 8 acre site was purchased in northwest Austin to become a permanent facility to replace the several smaller scattered sites that were mostly leased.
By 1960 the new 32,000 square foot plant, one of the most modern in the industry, was completed. An overhead monorail system greatly improved many of the old processes. Many other innovative pieces were incorporated by long time maintenance head, Hubert Campbell. A new two tone gel coating process was pioneered by Glastron due to a special hull parting wax they developed.
1961 saw a recession in the outboard boat industry. Nationwide, outboard boat sales dropped from 329,000 units in 1960 to 258,000 in 1961. Also, the plant in Madison Indiana was closed. On a good note Glastron introduced its first stern drive models.
1962
brought many areas of growth. A full time chemist was brought on board.
A
central gel coat distribution system was installed. Sales were back up
and
Bob Hammond met Harry Schoell, one of the first designers of the
V-hull.
Shortly after Glastron introduced its revolutionary
Aqua
Lift v-hull design. See my
Racing
section for info. on the great success of these V-hulls on the racing
circuit.
By the end of 1963 Aqua Lift models accounted for over 50%of sales. Racing victories were boosting sales and Glastron had sales representation in all 50 states. A tremendous distribution system of independent distributors set Glastron ahead of all the rest.
In 1964 half interest of Glastron was sold to Hugh Halff.
1965 saw even further growth as the plant was greatly expanded to 125,000 square feet and 14 acres. The first of many distributor sales incentive trips flew to Mexico City and Acapulco. These trips continued over the years and proved highly successful in keeping dealers and distributors highly motivated. In December a new 45,000 square ft. warehouse was added which featured vertical stacking of boats up to 23 ft. in length. Bob Hammond devised an excellent system of managing inventories at the factory as well the dealers that kept sales flowing smoothly at all times. A well devised system of distributors kept deliveries always moving at amazingly quick and efficient rate.
1966 saw more worldwide expansion as a special deal broke barriers and brought a special distribution deal and Glastron sales to Spain. Special inroads were also made in the U.K and sales blossomed there as well. A new high-tech computer system was added to greatly enhance production controls, billing, purchasing etc. Sailboats were added to the lineup and were moderately successful over several years. Development of the new Aqua Lift II hull was started and Glastron's excellent version of the cathedral hull would soon be ready. Testing had begun and the results were incredible when the test boat was compared to competitor boats. The boat would become the V-176 Swinger and become hugely popular when introduced in 1967.
1967
Halff orchestrated a merge of Glastron with the Conroy company which
brought
fresh capital to the company and allowed listing on the AMEX. The Aqua
Lift II hull was introduced to huge success. A Glastron boat was
converted
and became the Batboat
in the new Batman movie. Glastron acquires Nauta-Line and adds
houseboats
to the product line.