Thede points out that the exterior trim is one piece-that means 20-ft. Castings and patterns for all the hardware are made from the originals. Thede's improvements include $8000 worth of leather for the seats. The seats, gauges, steering wheels and the like used in boats of the 1930s and '40s did not hold up well because they were automotive components not designed for the marine environment. What originally was mahogany (deck, dashboard, interior trim) remains so. What was formerly a painted plywood hull is now gel-coated fiberglass. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playįrom the waterline up, today's Ventnor looks like an exact copy of the original, but with upgraded materials. Runabout in both finned and finless versions. A 50-year veteran of the marine industry, he decided to revive the Ventnor name and recreate its signature 20-ft. That would have been the end of the Ventnor story had it not been for Dick Thede. Ventnor, which had been in business since 1902 and had dominated virtually every major class in racing from the 1920s through the '40s, folded in 1968. More than 800 finned runabouts alone were constructed before the models were discontinued after 1950. A year later, a finless version of the Runabout was introduced, and both models were hot sellers. The finned fantasy captured the show's "Boat of the Year" honor, and popular demand literally forced the company to produce it. A radical, art deco-inspired craft with a distinctive dorsal-finned, beaver-tailed, torpedo stern, the boat was meant to be just a "teaser" to draw attention to Ventnor's conventional models. The original version made its debut at the 1945 New York Boat Show. One of the nicest and visually most faithful to the original is the Ventnor 20-ft. Restoring one of these vintage speedboats can cost upward of 100 grand. And, like the Stutz, these striking, hand-built wooden runabouts have become prized collectors' items. They were the Stutz Bearcats of the water in their day, with names like Garwood, Hackercraft and Ventnor.
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