Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company

Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company. . , Frank Winter, along with his brother-in-law and business partner, Fred Dreger, founded the Tomahawk Boat Mfg. Co. in Tomahawk, WI in 1945. At first the firm made wooden boats, primarily of cedar strip construction, but eventually of plywood. In 1952, Winter began experimenting with then-new fiberglass, at first using it to seal wooden boat hulls and eventually to build entire boats from molds. In 1953, Winter produced the world's first all fiberglass-hulled boat. Winter is considered one of the pioneers of what became an explosion of middle class- boating after World War II, thanks to the advent of relatively inexpensive fiberglass boats., As the Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company's success was climbing, the facility was destroyed by fire in 1954. Rebuilt in part by company employees, full production resumed in a new structure just 89 days after the fire., When the market fell apart one year and nobody was buying boats, the plant found work in other products. Winter designed a fiberglass golf cart marketed by Harley-Davidson (examples are very rare today and much prized by H-D collectors.) The Company also made milk storage outer shells for Solar, paper mill hoods, frames for billboards, Hough cabs (driver shells), Santa sleighs, stage coaches and fiberglass signs., Another of their non-boat productions was saddlebags for H-D motorcycles. Harley bought 51 percent of the company circa 1960 remainder shortly thereafter. H-D marketed Tomahawk fiberglass boats under its name for one year - another scarce collectible, but quickly abandoned the boat business. After selling to H-D, Winter founded Lake Tomahawk Boat Co. and continued to manufacture traditional wooden boats until his death in the 1990's., During the heyday of its fiberglass boat business in the 1950's, Tomahawk was one of the county's leading manufacturers. Evinrude used Tomahawk's [sic] exclusively in its catalog one year. The U.S. pavilion at the Brussels Worlds Fair had a Tomahawk fishing boat. Tomahawk Boat advertising brochures almost always featured pictures of Winter's children at the controls and/or riding in their crafts., , A Futuristic Racing Boat- ON TARGET. , ON TARGET, a fiberglass prototype boat built by the Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company in 1961 was initially unveiled in the same year at the Marine Trades Exhibit and Conference in Chicago. The 18-foot, two-passenger craft was the result of an eighteen-year dream by its designer and company co-founder, Frank Winter. The boat was made of fiberglass, a material pioneered for marine use by the company., A company press release at the time touted the missile-shaped vessel as, "A radical departure in boating, encompassing futuristic design, three-point suspension with front rudder steering and a totally enclosed-by-position locked outboard motor." The rudder steering system was meant to achieve "a more level ride, as the boat does not bank or act erratic, since the line of thrust is always forward, just is it is in an automobile or plant," the company stated., ON TARGET was featured in Newsweek and on the Today television show during a boat show in New York City. With its fighter-plane-like fuselage, it was part of Winter's extensive involvement in boat racing. Despite its groundbreaking features and advance publicity, the one-of-a-kind futuristic craft never made it into production.