Quote Originally Posted by Karsten View Post
TX2,

Actually it was Schuster that splashed the Glastron after 16 ft Deep Vee after watching an offshore race and hte flat bottoms getting their butts kicked. Schuster borrowed a Glastron from a local dealer and copied the hull over the weekend.

Sidewinder came along and copied the hull Schuster had copied and added a Lo Pro Deck, Then Sidewinder knocked off the Schuster Tahiti deck pictured above...Everyone was suing everyone and I don't think anyone ever won anything....Then came all the copies of the Lo Pro and Tahiti decks.

Karsten
Sounds like a real mess..... but a pop is a pop and it sounds like both companies deserved each other. The 14, 15 and 16 foot Glastron hulls became the "basis" for a lot of hulls back then including Checkmate. Glastron and Sea Ray are probably responsible for more boat companies' tooling than anybody else, with the possible exception of Don Aronow's 24 footer.

The Sidewinder tunnel hulls were actually made by a third party in their factory. They made about a dozen or so in both single and twin engine configurations and one of the big duals was actually a four point design. They were neat early tunnels and ran pretty competitively, especially the little single engine designs. This was between 1967 and 1970 or so, long before any Seebold involvement.