| The history of Marinette boats goes back to the mid 1950s when George Garcia, the owner of an aircraft repair business near Louisville, Kentucky, decided to build an aluminum boat for his own use. Garcia employed a workforce that was skilled in the use of aluminum alloys, and he reasoned that if the material was good enough for the aircraft industry, why not use it in the construction of boats as well? By 1960, just as the marine industry was switching from wood to fiberglass, Aluminum Cruisers, Inc., was volume producing the Marinette 30 Express and selling it primarily to midwest customers.The company grew steadily during the 1970s and 1980s and as the Marinette line expanded, thousands were sold in the fresh-water lakes and rivers of the U.S. By the early 1990s, however, with the boating industry in a sales decline across the board and all manufacturers were experiencing problems, Aluminum Cruisers ceased production. The remaining Marinette molds were then acquired by Boating Corp. of America, the Tennessee-based builder of Harbor Master houseboats. Efforts to revive the Marinette nameplate were unsuccessful, however, and production of the last Marinette models ended in 1994. |
