Mintish Panther

There's no forum for this line of boat, and a search brings up nothing except someplace that calls itself by the same name . . . ;-)

I just now bought a 30' Panther after 12 years "boatless". It brought back memories of regret parting with my 1982 Hammond Model "1940" Deep-Vee Open Bow . . ., - tan hull with contrasting gold metalflake covering a really classic bulged fenderline and incorporating what had to be one of the very first of the integral molded swim transoms, molded helm, and lots of teak. I'll stop now, but this thing reeked of 'classic'.

Bob Hammond left Glastron for his own namesake, but kept the signature metalflake and put together a boat that rivaled the quality of my friend's Cobalt and was so distinctive it got gawks everywhere back when a 20' boat was ALMOST large enough to run weekends at Lake of the Ozarks.

I tracked Bob down once to get the exact source for those metal shavings (there were two separate colors used) and shake rate for the metalflake, along with correct tan base hull color ('81 Ford Pickup) for a repair. He was extremely helpful and offered good history on his company.

What was kind of ironic was that this particular boat happened to be the exact same one setting brand-new in the dealer's showroom 5 years earlier that I wished someday I could own while I was tooling around in my then current 17' Caravelle.

Anybody out there have or remember the Deep-Vee Hammond?

Magicfloat

Hammond was introduced in Fall of 75 as a 76 model. We were one of the first to sign on as a dealer and sold them until Bob stopped production in 83. A few were built in 84 by Renken but quality was poor so Bob got his brand name back. Renken sold the molds to Stryker in Alabama who built a few with Hammond nameplates until Bob sued for copyright infringement, then built for a few more years as a Stryker. The Bob Hammond built boats were arguably the best quality small runabouts on the market at that time. My favorite was the 2150 Hammond/Challenger.with bottom by George Lindner(not a pop,Bob paid George for the bottom)We still have one at the store,still the best handling 21'boat ever. If Bob was still building boats we would still be selling them.Our first one was serial #4,a 1976 19',still on the lake here.

Airpacker

2150 Hammond Challenger. Theres one of those in brown/tan/metal flake up here in the Muskokas. Except for the colour its still a great looking boat.