History of Glastron Boats

Travel & Leisure

  • Author Andrea Roberts
  • Published February 7, 2010
  • Word count 438

Glastron Boats are mostly known for a few main things which created their high profile very quickly. The first was that they produced the first larger scale fibreglass runabouts, which consisted of around 500,000 boats which is a lot more than any other boat company. Secondly in 1973 they produced boats for ‘Live and Let Die’ the popular James Bond film. From this 17 of the boats they produced where destroyed while shooting the boat scene to create the perfect speed and height for the jump scene which broke records. In the 1980s they designed a boat for another James Bond film ‘Moonraker’ this boat then went on to be given the ‘Boat of the Year’ prize by Powerboat Magazine. Glastron also produced the bat boat which is one of their most famous boats today. This boat was featured in the batman movie and also the TV series. These movements made Glastron Boats extremely famous and well known today.

The company was first set up in 1956 when four people shared a common interest in building fibreglass boats, these where Robert R. Hammond, William D. Gaston, Robert A. Shoop and Guy W. Woodard. They released their first two models in 1957. These models offered their customers something which others did not, and that was a choice of different deck colours. They then released three other models which where the first models to offer a fibreglass hardtop.

As Glastron Boats was rising to success they began to expand their facilities in Northwest Austin, where they purchase 8 acres of land. Glastron Boats saw new innovative technologies within their new models including a two tones gel coat hull, the Aqua Lift deep-vee hull, and their first tri-hull boat. By the beginning of the 1960s Glastron boats saw half of its boat sales come from the innovative models with the deep-vee Aqua lift. In the 1970s Glastron saw its 100,000 boat being built, and they also replaced there standard steering which led to a big increase within safety.

In the 1980s and 1990s Glastron boats saw two large expansions. The first was to New Braunfels in Texas, and the second was to a larger location in Little Falls Minnestona. In 1997 Glastron had a new innovative idea which led to stronger but lighter boats which created a better performance. This came about when they started using multi-axial fibreglass.

In the last few years Glastron have developed a new technology called the VEC Technology. This consists of a closed-mould boat building process. From this Glastron expanded an extra 95,000 square feet to secure an area to support their new technology. Today most of Glastron Boats are built using this VEC technology.

To find out more about Glastron Boats check out Network Yacht Brokers.

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