Marinette Boat Forum

balthaus wrote:Speaking to the demise of Marinette....
The economy was in the toilet, luxury tax was in effect, home mortgage interest was double digits, most importantly though, the city of Louisville was actively courting UPS, which meant that they needed more land.
There were a couple of other companies that got pushed out as well...International Harvester, although from what I remember, their Louisville operation was mostly relocated by then, and Bremner Biscuit, and I am not sure about their strength, company wise, in Louisville versus other, if any, production locations.
Mr.Garcia had endured numerous business up's and down's prior to even forming Aluminum Cruisers Inc.. Could he have weathered the early 90's? Hard to say given the economy and the city of Louisville actively expanding the airport.

Speaking of UPS, I was in Lynchburg, VA a few years ago for some training. One of the guys in my class was from UPS in Louisville. He said the building at Standiford Airfield (renamed to Louisville International in 95) where our boats were born is now part of the UPS hub facility...He was well aware of the Marinette name.

-Karl

A lot of you know the original name was Louisville Flying Service, using aircraft practices in their construction.

"The way I heard it from John Althouse was Garcia sold Marinette to a houseboat company and production was moved from Louisville to Tennessee. (Undoubtedly an attempt at cost saving.) "



I believe the house boat company also started using fiberglass panels in some of the flybridge corner sections on the new 34'. The beginning of the end.

bill

Aluminum Cruisers was sold to Houseboat Corp of America, I believe. One of the sons of the original Marinette dealers here in Louisville was attempting to buy the company, and find a new production space, but HBCA got the cash to Mr. Garcia faster. As far as fiberglass panels I cannot speak to that.
New Endeavor hit on the Louisville Flying Service aspect.
After reviving Louisville Flying service a couple of times, due to a partners decisions/actions in Mr. Garcia's absence, he decided to try boat manufacturing in order to keep his guys working.

Thought the original name was "Falls City Flying Service". At least that was in the owners manual of my uncle's old 1970 28' express.

And a couple of places on the internet:

http://www.pclansystems.com/marinette/m ... story.html

better yet:

https://books.google.com/books?id=VzgZG ... ce&f=false

You can still buy a new aluminum boat from a custom yard. When I was a kid, the price for a luxury boat was $1000 a foot. Today you have to add a zero to that figure.

You could find a 32 or even a 37 in good shape for less than fifteen grand--heck probably less than ten. Take a couple of years (assuming you're only working on it during weekends), strip out the interior, remove the black gunk and paint the inside with something better, replace the engines, install new fuel and water tanks, replace all the plumbing, install new seacocks, strip off the hardware, paint the whole boat, replace the interior, have new cushions, curtains etc. made and you'd have about $50k in the whole project. Of course after all that your new old boat would only sell for $15k so you don't do it to make money.

Joe

Yes, Falls City Flying Service is correct, Sorry got in a hurry. It was on the name plate on my 1966 26M.

Yes, Falls City Flying Service is correct, Sorry got in a hurry. It was on the name plate on my 1966 26M.

We are going to look at it again tomorrow and take her out for a ride, will this be the one?

Good luck and enjoy the ride.
bill

This photo is the 34' double cabin model.