Grumman Canoe manufacturer for sale.....

21 August 2016, 07:02

.....Marathon Boat Group, located in Marathon, NY.

If anyone is interested in building and selling aluminum boats, here's your chance for a major brand name.

I have absolutely nothing to do with this sale and am posting it for informational purposes only.

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21 August 2016, 10:04

TCLouis

Hope that someone buys them, they move south and open shop.
BOOM ALum or not I prefer aluminum, but use my little Old Towne Plastic because it is smaller (12'9") and lighter

21 August 2016, 14:10

fla3006

I still occasionally use my grandfather's 17' square stern he gave me when I was in college in the late 60s. I have paddled many miles in that craft which I plan to pass on to my grandson.

21 August 2016, 17:29

mete

That's interesting as here on the river aluminum canoes were not a good choice as the rocks beat them up. The sandwich type [[plastic/foam/plastic,Royalex ? ] is no longer made] .The newer carbon fiber canoes are very light , 15 lbs or so for a typical canoe very nice for the portage !
Aluminum future ? OK for lakes but not rivers.With improvements in composits I wonder if that's the real future ?
As an aside -- I watched a welder repair a bunch of Al boats .Taking a very close look I realized the boats had a manufacturing defect !! Poor QC.

23 August 2016, 01:05

p dog shooter

quote:
Royalex

I own 7 canoes the Royalex are far the toughest the carbon fiber or kelvar are the lightest the alum canoes were good in their day but their are better materials out there.

23 August 2016, 05:08

Gatogordo

quote:
Originally posted by p dog shooter:
quote:
Royalex

I own 7 canoes the Royalex are far the toughest the carbon fiber or kelvar are the lightest the alum canoes were good in their day but their are better materials out there.

You're probably right, but I'm not sure if you can leave any kind of canoe but aluminum out in the sun/weather for 30 or 40 years and get in it and go.

27 August 2016, 00:57

p dog shooter

most likely right about I have found many alum stashed boats in Canada that have been there for decades turn them over and go fishing.

29 August 2016, 07:49

Grizzly Adams

Always wondered if the Grumman canoe company was connected to the Grumman aircraft firm ? Very similar technology and material when you come down to it.

Grizz

31 August 2016, 03:41

fla3006

quote:
Grizzly Adams: Always wondered if the Grumman canoe company was connected to the Grumman aircraft firm?

Yes, initially.

01 September 2016, 21:30

Gatogordo

From Marathon's (company for sale) website:

quote:
In the summer of 1944, after portaging a heavy wood and canvas canoe on a fishing trip in the Adirondack Mountains, William Hoffman, Vice President of Grumman Aircraft Engineering, had an idea: What about making a canoe from the same lightweight, stretch-formed aluminum that Grumman had used to become the single largest producer of carrier-based fighter planes during World War II?
In 1945, the very first aluminum canoe, a 13-footer, was produced at the aircraft plant in Bethpage, Long Island. By the end of World War II Grumman was producing a line of 13', 15', 17', 18', 19', and 20' canoes.

The plant relocated to Marathon, N.Y. in 1952.and in 1988, Grumman produced the largest aluminum boat in its history at Marathon. Designed for the Great Lakes, it measured 22' 3".

In 1990 the Grumman boat and canoe division was sold to O.M.C. of Illinois, who soon purchased the DuraNautic Boat Company's tooling and assets and moved them to the Marathon Plant.

In 1996, a group of former Grumman managers and investors formed the Marathon Boat Group to purchase the canoe and boat operation from O.M.C., and resumed production of Marathon canoes, identical in every respect to the legendary Grummans.

In the summer of 2000, a licensing agreement was reached between Northrop Grumman and Marathon Boat Group. The name Grumman is once again back on the canoes where it always belonged.