where did the baja hulls come from??
01-03-2008 | 06:59 AM
#11
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From: Bonita Springs, Florida
The factory is located in Bucyrus, Ohio, about an hour north of Columbus. Very large and well laid out facility. I visited the factory around 1990 and at that time they appeared to be verticaly integrated and performing all of their lay ups and rigging.
01-03-2008 | 08:54 AM
#13
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From: Granite Quarry, NC
Yes, it did. The owner of Checkmate and the original owner of Baja were in business together back in the 60's. In fact, the owner of Checkmate was a boat dealer that got into the boat building business back in the late 50's, early 60's.
There was a parting of the ways sometime in the 60's and Baja was born using one of the 16' Checkmate molds. Baja was eventually bought by Brunswick after bouncing around a bit. I'm not sure if the original Baja owner sold it to Brunswick or if it has some intermediate ownership. The late 80's, early 90's were tough for Baja and it's from that period that they got such a bad performance / quality reputation.
BTW, I know this because my father bought one of the first Checkmate hulls as well as a resale boat from Bill Combs, the founder of Checkmate, before Checkmate was born. It wasn't pretty from what he told me, porpoised so bad they took the boat back and replaced it with a redesigned version. That was back around '59 or 60, I think. My father has passed so I can't ask him for details.
There was a parting of the ways sometime in the 60's and Baja was born using one of the 16' Checkmate molds. Baja was eventually bought by Brunswick after bouncing around a bit. I'm not sure if the original Baja owner sold it to Brunswick or if it has some intermediate ownership. The late 80's, early 90's were tough for Baja and it's from that period that they got such a bad performance / quality reputation.
BTW, I know this because my father bought one of the first Checkmate hulls as well as a resale boat from Bill Combs, the founder of Checkmate, before Checkmate was born. It wasn't pretty from what he told me, porpoised so bad they took the boat back and replaced it with a redesigned version. That was back around '59 or 60, I think. My father has passed so I can't ask him for details.
Filling in some blanks for ya......
Checkmate was founded by Bill Downard.......and Bill Combs, who were partners in a Bucyrus, Ohio Mercury outboard dealership. These two created the first Checkmates in 1964, first by "splashing" a 13 foot Norris Craft, with a semi flat bottom and "runners". Later they "splashed" various Glastron hulls and added basically flat decks to create their Vee bottom models (13', 14' and 16'). The signature attribute of all Checkmates back then was the Metalflake gel coat in a myriad of colors.
Bill Downard's son, Mike, became a Mercury/OMC team tunnel boat driver of some repute and won a prestigious Kiekhaefer Scholarship as I recall. Sadly Bill Downard passed away and the world seemingly forgot he ever existed in later years, but, in reality, he was the brains and the stability of the partnership, with Combs being somewhat of a latter day P.T. Barnum in many respects.
Baja was an early local spinoff and started with "splashes" of Checkmates.
Both of these companies made their reputations on the old Outboard Performance Craft (OPC), APBA and NOA racing circuits, which were the venues in which all of the key performance boats ( Allison, Glastron, Eltro, Hydrostream, Switzer, etc) showed their stuff. Most of the hull design features from that era ( Pad bottoms, Aerodynamic decks, steps, wings, cored construction, bonded decks and hulls, etc) are marketed currently as the "revolutionary" features the world swallows as new from the various Offshore Performance builders of today.
Here's a 1966 Pad bottom, vee hull, balsa cored, Allison with an "aero lift" deck and bow configuration (sort of a "beak" plus).
T2x
Last edited by T2x; 01-03-2008 at 09:04 AM.
01-03-2008 | 12:46 PM
#16
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From: Granite Quarry, NC
01-03-2008 | 02:13 PM
#18
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From: Syracuse N.Y.
01-03-2008 | 03:56 PM
#19
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From: Ormond Beach, FL
Filling in some blanks for ya......
Checkmate was founded by Bill Downard.......and Bill Combs, who were partners in a Bucyrus, Ohio Mercury outboard dealership. These two created the first Checkmates in 1964, first by "splashing" a 13 foot Norris Craft, with a semi flat bottom and "runners". Later they "splashed" various Glastron hulls and added basically flat decks to create their Vee bottom models (13', 14' and 16'). The signature attribute of all Checkmates back then was the Metalflake gel coat in a myriad of colors.
Bill Downard's son, Mike, became a Mercury/OMC team tunnel boat driver of some repute and won a prestigious Kiekhaefer Scholarship as I recall. Sadly Bill Downard passed away and the world seemingly forgot he ever existed in later years, but, in reality, he was the brains and the stability of the partnership, with Combs being somewhat of a latter day P.T. Barnum in many respects.
Baja was an early local spinoff and started with "splashes" of Checkmates.
Both of these companies made their reputations on the old Outboard Performance Craft (OPC), APBA and NOA racing circuits, which were the venues in which all of the key performance boats ( Allison, Glastron, Eltro, Hydrostream, Switzer, etc) showed their stuff. Most of the hull design features from that era ( Pad bottoms, Aerodynamic decks, steps, wings, cored construction, bonded decks and hulls, etc) are marketed currently as the "revolutionary" features the world swallows as new from the various Offshore Performance builders of today.
Here's a 1966 Pad bottom, vee hull, balsa cored, Allison with an "aero lift" deck and bow configuration (sort of a "beak" plus).
T2x
Checkmate was founded by Bill Downard.......and Bill Combs, who were partners in a Bucyrus, Ohio Mercury outboard dealership. These two created the first Checkmates in 1964, first by "splashing" a 13 foot Norris Craft, with a semi flat bottom and "runners". Later they "splashed" various Glastron hulls and added basically flat decks to create their Vee bottom models (13', 14' and 16'). The signature attribute of all Checkmates back then was the Metalflake gel coat in a myriad of colors.
Bill Downard's son, Mike, became a Mercury/OMC team tunnel boat driver of some repute and won a prestigious Kiekhaefer Scholarship as I recall. Sadly Bill Downard passed away and the world seemingly forgot he ever existed in later years, but, in reality, he was the brains and the stability of the partnership, with Combs being somewhat of a latter day P.T. Barnum in many respects.
Baja was an early local spinoff and started with "splashes" of Checkmates.
Both of these companies made their reputations on the old Outboard Performance Craft (OPC), APBA and NOA racing circuits, which were the venues in which all of the key performance boats ( Allison, Glastron, Eltro, Hydrostream, Switzer, etc) showed their stuff. Most of the hull design features from that era ( Pad bottoms, Aerodynamic decks, steps, wings, cored construction, bonded decks and hulls, etc) are marketed currently as the "revolutionary" features the world swallows as new from the various Offshore Performance builders of today.
Here's a 1966 Pad bottom, vee hull, balsa cored, Allison with an "aero lift" deck and bow configuration (sort of a "beak" plus).
T2x
As I remember it's likely he bought a boat from Combs while he still had the dealership but before he started building boats. I do know that boat was a disaster and Bill replaced it once he drove it.
It's funny how things tie back to each other. A friend of mine got the idea to build a pad bottomed, reverse chine, stepped transom boat directly from his success racing Allison's. In fact I believe Allison helped him design the hull that was the first V-Bottomed boat to break 100 mph. Any guesses who that "friend" might be
