Difference between revisions of "Emerald"

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you know every boat in this marina. So I started my career there, and within a year and half, I was the top salesman and I was flying along. But back then in the 50's, we didn't have the Chris-Craft franchise, and there was the magic name. It had 62 percent of the entire market. An
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So I went to a Chicago trade show in '64 looking for a small line of fiberglass boats. Back then, there were a lot of start-ups that would go out of business and stick you with bad boats, so you had to be careful. Sea Ray founder Connie Ray and I actually started our businesses at about the same time. Connie had Jerry Michilak, fresh from high school in Detroit, designing every Sea Ray until he recently retired- he's now in the Michigan Boating Industries Association's Hall of Fame. That's how I got fired up and started selling Sea Rays. I really got hooked on them. I remember in about 1970, I was with Connie on his big 58-foot aluminum fishing boat in the Bahamas and I told him we had to build bigger boats — we were at 30 feet at the time. He said, "I don't know." We spent a late night drinking too many martinis and I woke up at about 6 the next morning and heard a bunch of engines. It was one of the first Bertram shootouts and the fleet was coming in. So I woke up Connie to show him and said, "There, that's what we need — to get up into that size boat. Why should we hand your success and my success off to these
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[[Category:Oregon]]
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[[Category:Fiberglass]]

Revision as of 22:19, 11 March 2012

Emerald Fiberglass, Inc.

1831 W. 12th Ave.

Eugene, Oregon


Also found listed as the Emerald Fiberglass Manufacturing Company. According to a July 27, 1970 article in the Eugene Register-Guard, the Emerald Fiberglass building burned and eight or nine boat molds were destroyed. The "story-and-a-half corrugated metal shed" was destroyed. Owner of the company was listed as Fred Lindsey.

A Feb. 8, 2001 obituary, also from the Eugene Register-Guard, listed Harold Gilmour and Velma Gilmour, residents of Eugene from 1935 to 1971, owner-operators of Emerald Fiberglass Boats.


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