By Jeff Waco, Rocky Mountain Classics Chapter
I like to introduce a different boat for the members to read about when the Bilge Pump is published. There were so many builders in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and through the fifties that few people know about. There were more than just Chris Craft, Gar Woods, Hacker, Century etc. These are the unknowns today but were very well known in their time.
The Truscott Boat and Dock Company is one of those. The company started to build boats in 1885 out of St. Joseph, Michigan. Truscott was a large-scale builder of small boats, capitalizing on the manufacturing boom in the Midwest surrounding the development of the gas engine. Truscott was one of the first boat companies to switch to the cleaner and more efficient four-stroke-cycle gas engine design. Truscott launches were shipped all over the world, from China to Australia.
When other boat builders folded such as Gar Wood, and other began consolidating, Truscott seemed to get revitalized by new management in 1948 and the new general manager was Ed Hancock who for 23 years was high up in management of Gar Wood. In late 1947 there were press releases for new speedboats that were to range in size from 16-25 in length and most would sport varnished hulls with numerous style and construction features shared by no other builder.
For all of my years combing boat yards and marinas I only came across two Truscott’s. One was a cruiser of about 25’ and the other was a runabout of about 18’. Their runabouts resembled the Chris Crafts, Gar Woods, and Hackers, and the innovations were mostly in seating arrangements and upholstery. Over time Truscott ended up like other builders and disappeared from the scene.
This story originally appeared in the Rocky Mountain Classics Chapter’s newsletter, Bilge Pump.
