Ontario Yachts is a Canadian

boat builder This is a list of boat builders, for which there is a Wikipedia article. Motorboats (<50 feet)

Oakville, Ontario Oakville is a town in Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton. At its Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census population of 213,759, it is List of tow ...

, then

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

and more recently in

Burlington, Ontario Burlington is a city in the Regional Municipality of Halton at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Along with Milton to the north, it forms the western end of the Greater Toronto Area and is also part of the Hamilton met ...

. The company specializes in the manufacture and repair of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

s. The company was founded in 1961 and continued as the North American builder of the

Etchells The International Etchells Class is a racing class of one-design sailing boats, designed by American Skip Etchells. Production The first 36 boats were built by Skip Etchells and the Old Greenwich Boat Company between 1967 to 1969. In the ea ...

keelboat in 2018.

History

Ontario Yachts was founded by Dirk Kneulman Sr. and Maria Kneulman. Dirk Kneulman Sr. was born in 1922 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, where he grew up learning to build wooden boats. He immigrated to Canada in 1950 and shortly after built his first

Snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a near ...

. By 1961 Kneulman was building boats, mostly

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

s and dinghies, including Snipes and 5.5 metre boats, and Sitka spruce spars, and

sail batten On sailboats, a sail batten is a flexible insert in a sail, parallel to the direction of wind flow, that helps shape its qualities as an airfoil. Battens are long, thin strips of material, historically wooden but today usually fiberglass, vin ...

s – all made from wood. After only a few years in the business, Ontario Yachts established a reputation for high-quality workmanship and soon Kneulman’s Snipes were sought after by North America’s top one-design racing sailors. Next, Dirk established a world-wide market for his dinghy,

6 Metre The International Six Metre class is a class of classic racing yachts. Sixes are a '' construction class'', meaning that the boats are not identical but are all designed to meet specific measurement formula, in this case International rule. At ...

and

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

masts. Kneulman’s reputation for boat building grew and he began to build Olympic-class boats. In 1968, his final year building Olympic boats, nine of his shop’s 5.5 Metre yachts were raced in the Mexico Olympics. Kneulman accompanied the fleet at these Olympic events as a

shipwright Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

on the shore support team, to ensure his boats were properly tuned and repaired. One of these 5.5 boats, owned by media magnate

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...

, won a world championship in 1972. Kneulman was the Canadian Olympic Sailing Team shipwright in 1972 as well. In 1975, Kneulman began to build Etchells. Kneulman went to Dwyer Boats in

Barrington, Rhode Island Barrington is a suburban, residential town in Bristol County, Rhode Island located approximately southeast of Providence. It was founded by Congregationalist separatists from Swansea, Massachusetts and incorporated in 1717. Barrington was ced ...

to learn fiberglass boat construction during a one week course. Starting in the late 1960s, Ontario Yachts gained a reputation as a builder of quality fiberglass production boats. The first designs produced were the Viking 22

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

and the

Albacore The albacore (''Thunnus alalunga''), known also as the longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Perciformes. It is found in temperate and tropical waters across the globe in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. There are six distinct sto ...

dinghy. Later designs intended for the cruising market included the

C&C Yachts C&C Yachts was a builder of high-performance fiberglass monohull sailboats with production facilities in Canada, Germany, and the United States. C&C designed and constructed a full range of production line cruiser-racer boats, as well as custom ...

-designed Viking 28, Viking 33 and

Ontario 32 The Ontario 32 is a Canadian sailboat, that was designed by C&C Design and first built in 1974. Production The design was built by Ontario Yachts in Canada, between 1974 and 1986, with a total of 160 boats completed during its production run. ...

. The Bruce Kirby-designed

Sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

was intended for the racing sailboat market. The company survived the

early 1980s recession The early 1980s recession was a severe economic recession that affected much of the world between approximately the start of 1980 and 1983. It is widely considered to have been the most severe recession since World War II. A key event leading to ...

and the downturn in the fibreglass boat market by diversifying into other lines of fibreglass work. The company was noted as having built the fibreglass support for the pitcher's mound for the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Skydome. Ontario Yachts is now run by Kneulman’s son, Dirk. The company continued in business through 2018 as a boat repair and refurbisher, as well as the North American manufacturer of the Etchells racing keelboat, a boat Ontario Yachts has been constructing as a licensed builder since 1975.

Boats

Sailboats

Summary of boats built by Ontario Yachts: *

* Viking 22 *

* Viking 28 * Viking 25 * Viking 33 * Viking 34 *

* Ontario 28 * Gazelle 22 *

* Mark 25 *

Blazer 23 The Blazer 23 is a Canadian Trailer sailer, trailerable sailboat that was designed by Bruce Kirby (yachts), Bruce Kirby as Sailing (sport), racer-Cruising (maritime), cruiser and first built in 1988.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small C ...

Ideal 18 The Ideal 18 is a Canadian trailerable sailboat that was designed by Bruce Kirby as a one design racer and first built in 1989.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 88-89. Houghton Miff ...

History

Boats

Sailboats

Motorboats

See also

References

External links