The Grumman Fiberglass Canoe by Alan Glos

 19 Jun 22:

Our good friend Alan penned this article for Duckworks a few years back, he is one of the few Skippers out there to lay claim to a fiberglass Grumman canoe.

"In the early 1960s, Grumman bought a controlling interest in Pearson Yachts Company in Bristol, RI and in a bid to expand into the lucrative fiberglass boat market, and somewhere in the late 1970’s, they came out with a 16’ Grumman brand canoe in both fiberglass and Royalex. I happened to see one of the fiberglass hulls at a dealer’s shop, and it was love at first sight. The 16 foot hull was truly a thing of beauty. It was light, stiff with a fine entry at the bow and long flat run aft and no keel. The quality of the fiberglass work was extraordinary, and it was finished off with mahogany gunnels, ash carry yoke amidships and caned ash seats. About the only thing I didn’t like about the boat were the gunnels that looked unnecessarily heavy and overbuilt, but it was the nicest fiberglass canoe I had seen to date. I had to have one, but the price tag at over $1,000 was prohibitive at the time, so my boat-lust dream of owning one went into hiatus."

To read more: The Grumman Fiberglass Canoe by Alan Glos