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McGlasson Marine -
Joseph McGlasson Restoration
by:
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Islander History By
Jim Gravelyn - Edited by Randall Marquis
Text Extracted
From: www.islandersailboats.com
In the mid 1950's there was a
boat builder named Joseph McGlasson (he died in 1993)
who designed, built and successfully marketed a 24 foot
wooden sailboat, the Islander, in Costa
Mesa, California. Joseph, perhaps inspired by his own
last name, came to ponder the idea of building his boat
out of fiberglass instead of wood and in 1961 approached
a company named Glas Laminates to help him
accomplish this. Glas Laminates was making its money
from the sale of shower stalls and portable toilets, but
they knew fiberglass, so they took Joseph's sweet little
24 foot sailboat and created a mold from which the first
fiberglass Islander 24's were built.
( webmaster note: This contradicts the writing below by
Curt Cylke, who quotes McGlasson's Wife on the first fiberglass mold of the Catalina Ilsanders.)
The mold carried
the lines from the planks used in the wooden boat and
those grooves in the fiberglass hull became a signature
feature of the Islander 24, and other Islander models
later. [Editor's note: Ralph Brown
confirms this word-for-word.]
Well, this turned out to be a damned fine boat, and they sold like hotcakes. In fact, they sold as many as they could make, and perhaps the two partners in this collaboration weren't prepared for their success, because in 1962 Glas Laminates and Mr. McGlasson began to go their separate ways, with Glas Laminates changing its name to Columbia Sailboats and introducing the Sparkman & Stephens-designed Columbia 29, and Joseph with his McGlasson Boat Co. adding the Islander 32 to his line. The divorce wasn't amicable, and I don't pretend to know what happened, but if you ever have a chance to see an Islander 24 sitting next to a Columbia 24, Columbia Contender 24, or Columbia Challenger 24, you will see that the hulls are identical except that their (Columbia) versions have the planking lines removed. Perhaps the comparison will make you realize where McGlasson's bitterness came from... he felt that his design was stolen and used to build boats that competed for buyers with his own company.
(...)
Read More @
The History of Islander Yacht Corp.
The Unofficial History of Columbia Sailboats
Myths and Legends
of Columbia Sailboats: By
Curt Cylke
Text Extracted From:
http://www.columbia-yachts.com
Joseph McGlasson, a west-coast wooden boat builder, developed an interest in fiberglass production in the late 1950s. According to his widow, Evelyn, Joe formed a corporation called McGlasson Marine Corporation to begin production of his first fiberglass boat, the Islander 24. Using a 24 foot wooden boat, the Catalina Islander, which he had designed, built, and successfully marketed in the mid 1950s, Joe made a mold. The resulting mold had planking lines from the wooden boat and gave the fiberglass version of the Catalina Islander the look of the wooden boat.
(...)
Mass production of the Islander began in 1961, when Joe worked with Glas Laminates to begin full scale production. The boat was very popular and McGlasson was able to sell out the entire production run the first year. Excited by the initial popularity of the Islander 24, McGlasson became involved with Wayfarer Yacht Corporation and continued production of the Islander 24. As the popularity of sailing increases, boat sales soar, and at some point, Wayfarer production is taken over by Islander Yachts of Costa Mesa, California. McGlasson’s relationship to Wayfarer, although it appears he was at least part-owner, remains vague. His relationship to Islander is even less clear. By 1965 at the latest, Islander Yachts is producing the Islander 24 and Islander Bahama 24. Islander Yachts in the mid-1960s was a subsidiary of Cosmodyne Incorporated and by 1972 Islander had become a subsidiary of Radlon Incorporated. This changing corporate ownership suggests that by the mid-1960s, Joe McGlasson had walked away from the boat and its production.
The five years following the production of the first fiberglass Islander 24 were surround by intense production pressures as demand for the Islander 24 and Bahama 24 was apparently greater than production capacity. Where there are quick profits to be made unsavory businessmen are sure to follow, and so they did. Indeed, Joe McGlasson’s foray into fiberglass boat production left him bitter at the industry. According to Evelyn, Joe believed he had been ripped off by Glass Marine, Inc. While Evelyn could not remember all the details, she was clear that Glas Laminates could not keep up with production demands and that Joe agreed to let Glas Laminates contract out some of the production.
The relationship between McGlasson, Glass Laminates and Wayfarer sours when Glass Marine Industries begins to produce the Columbia line of sailboats. Wanting to quickly capitalize on the demand for small affordable yachts, someone at the Columbia Sailing Yachts Division of Glass Marine Industries modifies the mold for the Islander 24 to eliminate the grooves and the wooden boat look of the Islander 24. The modified mold is used to produce the first in the series of three Columbia 24s. McGlasson was outraged at having his design stolen. The Columbia 24, Columbia Contender 24, and Columbia Challenger 24, all have the same hull, McGlasson’s Islander 24 hull.
(...)
Read More @
http://www.columbia-yachts.com/islander.html
Myths and Legends of Columbia
Sailboats
Original Image Extracted from:
http://www.columbia-yachts.com/myths.html
