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Looking for info on my 1967 Maverick Speed Boat


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  • 1 month later...

There was a write up with Scott Deal, a question and answer conversion that went way back into the history of Skiffs and I think I read that there was a California speed boat maker that was commissioned to build hulls for use as fishing Skiffs. If my memory serves,  I thought that was were Scott got the Name. I can not remember where I ran across that Article but it was not to long ago.

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Deal:  The original Maverick was built by a guy named Wally Cole out of Miami. He built a racing boat. Originally, it was an inboard racing boat which was a modified version of the California drag boat called the Maverick.

 

My memory was a little off, but if you want to know the history of Scott Deal's Maverick boats and Skiffs in general, this is right from the horses mouth.

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  • 8 months later...

My name is Wallace Cole. I am Wally Cole‘s son. I know the history of the Mavericks as I lived it. My father bought the original hull from Phantom in California. We had a boat yard in Miami that I worked in when I was young, early 70s and later during the 90s. The above quote from S Deal is correct, the original boat was brought in as a racing boat for stadium racing in Miami. I was obsessed with fly fishing for bones and permit in the 70s. I was fishing with my friend, George Von Shradrer, out of a 17 Whaler. We would religiously  fish the flats south of key Biscayne and take two trips down to the lower Keys every year for Tarpon, bones and my personal obsession with permit. We would fly fish whenever possible. Whaler  had a built-in cleat above the front deck which the fly line used to get continually caught on. One day Von Shrader asked if he thought my father could build a boat specifically for flyfishing. I said I’d ask. That day at dinner I talked with my father about it. He said draw it and I’ll build it. I drew the first 17 maverick as a very simple platform with unobstructed decks that we could fly fish off of. We built four or five. Guy Valdene bought number three. I remember having an argument with him about putting in a seat in as opposed to  the consul only. He was a guide and it was his money so he won. Those were the first Mavericks. They are now built by Castlow as the Dragonfly. The original boats had tumblehome, likeCastlow’’s which Scott Berg took off because he couldn’t get them out of the mold. Castlow took the mold off  of Jimmy Buffets maverick(Valdene) , and is the original hull and Design.. The Maverick name came from our shop. We also had a tunnel and a 28 footer, now being built under another name. That’s the story. 

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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Marc and Matthew. Thanks for the kind words. Happy to be on board.. Matthew, great to see the pictures of those boats. Thanks. As you can see, Dr. Berg‘s boat does not have the same tumblehome as the original. After we sold him the mold, he called and said he was having trouble floating the boat out after lamination. He changed the rear deck, which in someways made the boat a little easier to walk around. It’s great you still have it. Buffet’s boat in the picture came out of our shop and was originally built for Valdene. Mark Castlow is now building that as the Dragonfly. He popped a mold off of Buffett‘s boat. I have one of Mark‘s dragonflies, he builts a nice product and I love having the original.. Interestingly, an Australian whose name I forget , had us build a tunnel hull for flats fishing in the early 1980s. The prototype was somewhat ahead of its time. Unfortunately, he died of cancer before he could market the boat. Don Aronow ended up with our tunnel mold. We had raced it and it had never blown over. He spoke with us about building a prototype to race against the unlimited hydroplanes. We did the math and figured on some of the oval courses, the tunnel could corner so far inside of the unlimited‘s that it could win even though slower on the straights. He was set up to do this with 2 two cycle Evinrude V8 engines in each hull driving a shaft. Pretty wild. Anyway, a lot of prototypes came out of our shop, some still around.

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16 hours ago, Wallace Cole said:

Marc and Matthew. Thanks for the kind words. Happy to be on board.. Matthew, great to see the pictures of those boats. Thanks. As you can see, Dr. Berg‘s boat does not have the same tumblehome as the original. After we sold him the mold, he called and said he was having trouble floating the boat out after lamination. He changed the rear deck, which in someways made the boat a little easier to walk around. It’s great you still have it. Buffet’s boat in the picture came out of our shop and was originally built for Valdene. Mark Castlow is now building that as the Dragonfly. He popped a mold off of Buffett‘s boat. I have one of Mark‘s dragonflies, he builts a nice product and I love having the original.. Interestingly, an Australian whose name I forget , had us build a tunnel hull for flats fishing in the early 1980s. The prototype was somewhat ahead of its time. Unfortunately, he died of cancer before he could market the boat. Don Aronow ended up with our tunnel mold. We had raced it and it had never blown over. He spoke with us about building a prototype to race against the unlimited hydroplanes. We did the math and figured on some of the oval courses, the tunnel could corner so far inside of the unlimited‘s that it could win even though slower on the straights. He was set up to do this with 2 two cycle Evinrude V8 engines in each hull driving a shaft. Pretty wild. Anyway, a lot of prototypes came out of our shop, some still around.

Amazing.  There has been a lot of discussion about the similarity of the dragonfly to the master angler, now we know why!   Does anyone have the molds for the original berg?

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  • 6 months later...
On 11/19/2022 at 2:05 PM, Wallace Cole said:

Marc and Matthew. Thanks for the kind words. Happy to be on board.. Matthew, great to see the pictures of those boats. Thanks. As you can see, Dr. Berg‘s boat does not have the same tumblehome as the original. After we sold him the mold, he called and said he was having trouble floating the boat out after lamination. He changed the rear deck, which in someways made the boat a little easier to walk around. It’s great you still have it. Buffet’s boat in the picture came out of our shop and was originally built for Valdene. Mark Castlow is now building that as the Dragonfly. He popped a mold off of Buffett‘s boat. I have one of Mark‘s dragonflies, he builts a nice product and I love having the original.. Interestingly, an Australian whose name I forget , had us build a tunnel hull for flats fishing in the early 1980s. The prototype was somewhat ahead of its time. Unfortunately, he died of cancer before he could market the boat. Don Aronow ended up with our tunnel mold. We had raced it and it had never blown over. He spoke with us about building a prototype to race against the unlimited hydroplanes. We did the math and figured on some of the oval courses, the tunnel could corner so far inside of the unlimited‘s that it could win even though slower on the straights. He was set up to do this with 2 two cycle Evinrude V8 engines in each hull driving a shaft. Pretty wild. Anyway, a lot of prototypes came out of our shop, some 

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This kind of background is priceless ! These were the earliest days of fiberglass boat building.  These were first of the light, shallow boats designed for Biscayne Bay and the Keys. Outboard motors were growing in horsepower from 2 cyl 33, to 40 hp, then 4 cyls to 115 hp, then Merc’s tower of power 6 cyls. Transoms were plywood, and had be beefed up for the weight and power.. 

Boats evolved along with the motors. It was an amazing time and Thank you to the two gentlemen for sharing !! 
This topic will be saved !

MM

 

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