Background of the Nauticraft Pedal Boats

 In the early 1980's Garry Hoyt, world renowned yacht designer from Newport, Rhode Island, decided to try his hand at designing a pair of pedal boats. The first of these became known as the Waterbug, and he enticed his friends, the Harken Brothers (makers of yacht hardware of international fame) to build this boat. It quickly became evident that, while the performance of the Waterbug was outstanding, there were three significant shortcomings. First, the small, tight cockpit that housed the single peddler could become unbearably warm. Second, the "floating egg" styling was a little too funky for most tastes. Third, the boat was so expensive to manufacture that it was difficult to sell at a reasonable cost.

 Hoyt addressed these concerns with his second design. This boat, which became known as the Mallard, was larger and more open, had a "jump seat" in the back for an additional passenger or two, and had stunning futuristic styling. Its fiberglass hull had only two major molded parts, which meant that manufacturing costs had the potential to be more acceptable.

 Unfortunately, both of these boats were ahead of their time. The issues of environmental conservation and personal health had not yet come into vogue for the general public at the time they were introduced. Also, the concept of comfortable, efficient, human propelled water craft was not yet widely grasped. The problem of marketing these two boats to a world in which there was no existing benchmark became increasingly daunting. Harken-Hoyt then made a rational, economic decision. They pulled the boats off the market and put the tooling in mothballs until a later date when they might be revived and more successfully received.

 Fast forward ahead to 1994 - Curtis Chambers, a custom injection molder from Michigan and a hobbyist-collector of pedal boats, became aware of the Waterbug-Mallard project. He did a cursory investigation, and approached Harken-Hoyt about the two watercraft. An agreement was struck in which the tooling and inventory for the two boats, plus a license to build, was transferred to Chambers and sent to Michigan.

 In a refocusing of personal priorities, Chambers disposed of his injection molding business, built a new manufacturing building, and registered the name Nauticraft Corporation. A general business plan was developed, and a contract was made for the engineering and design services of Tom Parker of Parker Designs. The Waterbug, as a viable project, was examined and quickly rejected. The design of the Mallard, however, perhaps avant-garde when first penned was not only still appealing, but seemed to be evolving as a classic look.

 It was decided to change the Mallard name to Escapade, and, using the transferred fiberglass molds, manufacturing was begun. Thirty six boat hull parts were molded, and a contract was let for an equal number of Harken designed pedal drive units. However, as the first six boats finished assembly it became obvious that this revived method of boat manufacturing was antiquated in the current world. The manufacturing aspect of the project was reviewed, new processes were investigated, and ultimately the rotational molding method was selected as being the most viable.

 Subsequently, a rotational molding machine was ordered, and contracts were let for patterns and then molds. The functionally excellent Harken designed drive unit was regretfully rejected. Its cast aluminum frame, chain, sprockets, gears, stainless shafts, ball-bearings, etc. made a design that was just too sophisticated and costly to continue consideration. Using the "clean-sheet-of-paper" approach, an entirely new and different drive unit was engineered. Because the hull and ancillary parts were to be rotationally molded it was decided to develop the drive around a rotational molded housing. This housing, then, was to carry two large diameter sprockets connected to two small sprockets by a four-way twisted industrial timing belt. The results gave a simple, economical, highly efficient drive unit that also had the bonus of looking great.

 The rotomolding of the boat hull and the rest of the ancillary parts gave the hoped for results as well as additional advantages. The time, effort, and finances involved in executing this transition was well worth it, and the rotomolded Escapade went into production in 1997. Since that time, the Escapade has been continually improved and refined with the latest innovations in rotomolding technology. And now two new boats have joined their sleek and stylish sister in the Nauticraft family.

                             Curtis Chambers - Owner

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