TOPIC: 1959 Herters

Here is a picture of are 1959 Herters I am just trying to post picture.

1 more time

Success, and great looking boat by the way.

Bob

Now you're making me jealous. Must have been some subtle changes during the course of the year. I see different hand holds than I have for mine, wheel on the port side vs starboard. What lights are in the back?
Cal

boy it looks great,mines a port steering too,and my handles and bow handle are a bit different,but like cal says im jelous,i have to wait till spring and i hope it looks half as nice,john

I do not know about the hand holds. the lights i got at a truck stop they are leed.
I havea 1959 Howie Craft and the weel is on the port also.

I guess great minds run in the same truck stop.

There are some pretty significant differences in the interiors. Your dashboard is larger (deeper)than mine, the back of the front seats is narrower(?), the rear seating area is much larger but the back of the rear seat is lower and it appears that the stearn is enclosed? Must be different orders or mid season changes.

curious, what did you do with your transom?

63 Sabre,
Your boat and Jerry's are the same model, a 1959, or newer Deluxe Flying Fish.
I have seen Jerry's boat at a show or two and it is an extremely good looking boat. The craftmanship is outstanding.
The reason for the differences between yours and his is that Jerry has made some changes in the stern area, I believe, because he wanted to make it a little cleaner looking and more user friendly. He may want to jump with a comment on that. If the dashes are different that may have been a mod also.
In 1959 there were three models of the Herters runabouts, The Flying Fish Deluxe, the Flying Fish Standard, and the Mark III.
Both Flying Fish models were 15 feet long and 68 inches wide, and the Mark III was 14 feet long and 62 inches wide. The Deluxe had a built in rear seat and a larger splashwell. The Standard and the Mark III had a rear fiberglas bench seat, shorter splash wells, and the innovative reversing rear seat. The reversing seat was standard on the Standard model, but optional on the Mark III.
As far as the grab handles go there was a change from the shorter style to the ones that wrapped around the back of the front seat, but it wasn't tied to a year or model. I have seen the late ones on some 58's that appeared original. The 1961 Herters catalog showed pictures of the models with the older style, probably because they were using old pictures.
Most 59 and newer models had the later style.
Altough most people call the twin tail light (1958 had no tail lights, 1957 had one) Herters models 1959's, the Herters catalogs advertised them up to 1961 and it's diffcult to determine exactly what year a twin tailight model is.
I have seen three variations of the rear drains on twin tailight models and that may be a clue on the year of manufacture.
The earliest had the drain in the center of the floor a couple of inches in from the transom. I have seen one with the drain right in the angle of the floor and transom (possibly a mod?) and most with the drain out the back of the transom.
Herters had a lot of options, including drains and it's really hard to sort out what was Herters installed and what was done by the owner. The owner could order a stripped version of any of the models and insatll his or her preferences.
I have attached a couple of scans from the 1961 catalog showing the three models, Deluxe, Standard, and Mark III avaialble that year. Of course, advertising them in 61 was one thing, selling was another. There are no records that I know of that boats were actually sold that year, but I belive there must have been some.
Note that they were all running Scott motors.
Also, if you look closely you can see the flags on the Standard and Mark III are mounted on the gunnel and the Deluxe is mounted behind the passengers on the center of the splashwell. That's because the splashwell and the Mark III was so short there was no room for the flag so they went to the gunnel.

Thanks guys
Mine had the innovative reversing rear seat it was in real bad shape so i made a seat. and my drain was in the center of the floor a couple of inches in from the transom but i put mine out the back of the transom .
Here is a photo of the rear seat when i was working on it.

Wow! that is a wealth of information. I must have the delux because the flag pole/stern light was mounted in the center of the back seat back. It was broken off and the po screwed a large piece of stainless there and welded the pole to it that's why I had to fill in the hole and mount a new light in it's place, the Dorsett stern light was a perfect fit for the seat back. I really like the idea of the enclosed back portion, looks cool as all get out. Someone cut a large section out of the back of the rear seat that I will have to fix up somehow.

Maybe I can come up with a hatch type hard cover. At one time there was a cover over the back because gromets were all around the perimiter.
What a treat to see one customized to the owners liking. A true visionary.
Thanks for sharing.

I have about 20 pages on Herters that Lee Weinsted gave me. If you will send me a fax #, I can fax them to you (as I am not that good with trying to e-mail pages).
You can e-mail me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call me at 513-575-0090 and let me know.

Jerry
Haynes Fiberglass

Is this the location where you are going to mount your gas tank? I don't know if your motor weighs a lot less than my 40-hp Mercury, but if you look in a past issue (about a year ago) of Rudder Magazine, you can see my '59 Herters that sunk. Since then we have installed the gaskets around the hoses to keep water from going into the boat, but still, no one can ride in the back seat.

These boats sit very low in the water, so you may think about re-positioning your gas tank elsewhere (towards the front, maybe?). Hate to see you have a problem.

Jerry
Haynes Fiberglass

you can see my '59 Herters that sunk

Was that at a meet, Jerry? I remember seeing pics and a write up on that happening, and the folks who "jumped in" (literally!) to help get her back afloat. Sure glad you were able to rescue her, and kudos to you for giving all a heads up on the boat being tail heavy.

Sorry to hear about the unfortunate sinking. Glad everything turned out ok. When I googled the Herters after I purchased it I came up on lots of pictures of some of you guys at the meets and in the water, they do ride low. I'm no lightweight myself'
Thought about the weight problem when I stuffed the tank there. How does your boat ride or get on plane. If I put the tank in the bow would it still be stable in the water without "plowing". I plan on putting the original engine on it a Mark 58AE, 1959. Battery in the back along with an extra person or so. That's an 18 gallon tank.

mine is even lower in the transom area,i "plan" on making a splaswell with drain to shed any water out the comes over it.john

I would mount the motor you are going to use and take the boat to the lake and see how it sits (maybe with people in it) before mounting the gas tank.

We do have a splashwell with a drain, but our drain sits about 1/2" above the water, and takes more water IN than it lets OUT. But I believe we have solved the problems with ours, by installing the rubber cups around the hose inlets in the motor well and after we mount the '59 Evinrude Lark it should be okay. And a storm was brewing that day and the water started getting really rough. But they still sit VERY low in the water. My wife said she was glad we took the maiden voyage at Dale Hollow Kentucky instead of waiting until we went to Mt. Dora in Florida. She said she can swim, but can't outswim alligators!

You should be able to mount the gas tank in the front if you wish I have a 12 ft. Micro Boat with the gas tank on the front and it planes out (but we did put a doel fin on the back.

OK thanks for the info, no tank in the back. I do have a question maybe I should ask on the Merc site. If I put the tank forward will I have any problems with fuel delivery to the engine running my guess about 14' of fuel line? This is going to take some studying :)Of course I'd put the squeeze bulb back by the motor, it would only take 3 hours to initially prime the line
Cal

Hi Jerry! It's hard to beat Dale Hollow. As a kid and living near Dayton, I spent many great times there as well as Cumberland. Great boat!! My tank is in the front.

Hi.

Philpowerboat.

I live in Cincinnati Ohio and we have a log home at lake cumberland.so we go to cumberland all the time.

Did they ever get the water level back? When I was a kid it was down about 50 feet. Loved the coves with waterfalls but the shoreline is so steep that it's hard to beach boats and go ashore unlike Dale Hollow.

Glad I found this thread. From what I have read it looks as though I have a Deluxe 59/60.

Anyone have one of these laying around?

Cosmic, glad you found it also. Forgot about that thread

Lots of luck finding the glove box lid.

You will find that the heavy aluminum parts like the glove box cover, the tail fin covers and bow trim are all heavy cast aluminum, sorta rough in finish and it takes a lot of elbow grease, fine sanding and rubbing to bring them up to a shine but it can be done. Had to modify the cover with new hinges and a key lock. There was if I recall a cigarette pack holder. They show up once and awhile on ebay.

Check with Larry Macay at Vintage BoatWorks in the past he has the glove box lid and I think the cigarette holder too.
If he does not have the cigarette holder I have one I could give up.

Thanks Del,

Yes, we reproduce the Herters glovebox doors and cigarette holders in sand cast aluminum. We also reproduce the fin caps for the 57' and 59' - 61' Herters, as well as the Herters Rocket. We also reproduce the Herters emblems in brass or aluminum.

Larry
www.vintageboatworks.com