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Page 146 Around the Great Lakes, boating grew in popularity. Belle Isle and the Detroit waterfront were the center of much "pleasure boating" activity. By 1890, Edgar Davis's Detroit Boat and Oar Manufacturing Co. was producing over 800 boats a year, and shipping them around the country. His rowboat and canoe livery on Belle Isle was perhaps the largest in the nation, serving 400,000 people annually. The waterfront was also home to numerous small machine shops that were developing a new technology known as the gasoline engine. Based on early work by Clark Sintz of Grand Rapids, these engineers found, in Ransom Olds' words, that "a carriage is a very poor place to experiment with a motor." Instead, the likes of King, Ford, Buick, Berthel, Waterman, and others, refined their new engines in boats. The experiments proved successful, and soon speed was the objective, spawning races still held every summer on the Detroit River. Engines got larger, and hull designs got sleeker. Award winning sailboats appeared, also. Detroit area boat builders shipped crafts around the world, and revolutionized production techniques to appeal to an ever-expanding market. The names Chris-Craft, Hacker, GarWood, Fisher, and SeaRay came to represent quality boats available to all boaters. Today, the Gregory and Mayea families carry on the tradition. Wealth produced by Detroit's booming business climate also allowed for some very grand yachts. Ford, Kettering, DeRoy, Sorenson, Kettering, Wills were all names found in the Lloyd's Register of American Yachts. Horace Dodge's DELPHINE was the largest private yacht in the world when she was launched in 1921 at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, Michigan. Beyond Detroit, the region supported an active yachting culture. Almost every town had a boat launch, a marina, and a boat builder. Owens, Lyman, Matthews, Richardson, Defoe, Truscott, and dozens of others, produced beautiful vessels from mahogany and teak. Smaller firms turned out dories, whitehalls, rowboats, canoes, and kayaks. Today, fiberglass boats carry names like Tartan, Tiara, C&C, FourWinns, Melges, Baja, Performance, Gossard, and Carver. Mega-yachts are created in aluminum by the Wisconsin yards of Burger and Palmer-Johnson. If you long for the days of classic old yachts, they are not entirely gone. Grand-Craft will still make you a beautiful commuter and Hacker-Craft a three cockpit runabout. The lakes also support world renowned ancillary companies like Harken Yacht Equipment and Gougeon Brothers. Yacht Broker* Marine Hardware--Crui*er»--Launches--Runabouts- Rowboat*--Engine*--New and (Jted All Size* and Make*--Boat Houae* to Rent--Outboard Motor* Repa ir»--Refi ni*h ing DtSTRUUTOItS CHRIS-CRAFT JOHNSON CHRYSLER MATTHEWS GREGORY BOAT COMPANY Office and Sale*: 6611 E**t Jefferson Ave. at Bellevue YACHT BROKERS TEL. FITZROY 4250 Advertisement for the Gregory Boat Company, 1938. Belle Isle Canoe Livery, c. 1890s. Advertisement for the Belle Isle Boat and Engine Co., 1925. Bill Gregory founded the company in 1912. YACHT BROKERS i For Sale YACHTS, CRUISERS, LAUNCHES, RUNABOUTS, DINGEYS, ROWBOATS New and Used MARINE ENGINES--ALL MAKES OUTBOARD MOTORS -ALL MAKES New and Used Lenox oaj6 9662 East Jefferson At Waterworks Par^ Dossin Museum Collection Dossin Museum Collection Dossin Museum Collection