The Endeavour Yacht Corporation was an American

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

Largo, Florida Largo is the third largest city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, as well as the fourth largest in the Tampa Bay area. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 82,500, up from 69,371 in 2000. Largo was first incorporated in ...

. Founded in 1974 by John Brooks and Rob Valdes, the company specialized in the design and manufacture 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 cl ...

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 went out of business in 1986.

History

Brooks and Valdes had met while working for Vince Lazzara at Gulfstar Yachts. To assist the fledgling company get started in the

boat building Boat building is the design and construction of boats and their systems. This includes at a minimum a hull (watercraft), hull, with propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other systems as a craft requires. Construction materials and met ...

business, Ted Irwin of Irwin Yachts gave them the molds for the 1970 Irwin 32 in exchange for a small number of shares. The molds were modified by Dennis Robbins, who was responsible for Endeavour's production and design work. The reworked design was called the Endeavour 32 and about 600 examples were produced, starting in 1975, giving the company an early market success. For a second design Brooks and Valdes located an abandoned Ray Creekmore designed boat on the Miami River. It was also modified by Robbins, by adding to the middle of the boat and it became the basis for the 1977 Endeavour 37, which was produced in

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

, cutter and

yawl A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put. As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...

configurations. The company sold 476 examples of that design. The larger Endeavour 43 followed in 1979. These three designs were all optimized for sailing in the waters of the

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and the

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and emphasized shoal drafts over good windward performance. Construction was all of

woven roving and multi-directional chopped strand fiber (MCSF), with

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and

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

for cores. Robbins left the company to work for Irwin Yachts and Bob Johnson became the main designer for the next few years. Starting in 1980 the emphasis shifted to improving sailing performance along with new construction materials and techniques. The 1981 Endeavour 40 was designed for the owner cruising market but also with an eye to establishing sales in the

yacht charter Yacht chartering is the practice of renting, or chartering, a sailboat or motor yacht and travelling to various coastal or island destinations. This is usually a vacation activity, but it also can be a business event. There are two main kinds ...

market. This drove designs that were faster and also more comfortable. America's Cup designer Johan Valentijn designed the Endeavour 38 in 1984 and Bruce Kelly drew the

Endeavour 33 The Endeavour 33 is an American sailboat, that was designed by Bruce Kelley and first built in 1983. Production The design was built by Endeavour Yacht Corporation in the United States between 1983 and 1986, but it is now out of production. ...

and 35 designs that same year. Construction moved to Klegecell, a closed-cell type of

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foam core, with multi-axial steel reinforced grids to improve hull stiffness. Valentijn went on to design the Endeavour 42 and 51 and by 1985 the company was producing center-cockpit boats for cruising and charter use. Construction was changed using end-grain

balsa ''Ochroma pyramidale'', commonly known as the balsa tree, is a large, fast-growing tree native to the Americas. It is the sole member of the genus ''Ochroma''. The tree is famous for its wide usage in woodworking, with the name ''balsa'' being ...

wood in the hulls above the waterline areas and plywood for more stressed parts of the boats, with

polyurethane Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) refers to a class of polymers composed of organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethane is produced from ...

foam and triaxial fiberglass. By 1984 the company had 300 employees and was building 200 boats per year. Due to the effects of 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 ...

Brooks closed the company and it entered

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

. It was sold to the

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

-based Coastal Financial Corporation, headed by Troy Rollins. Brooks became the sales manager and Doug Franzese, who had been Production Manager at Gulfstar, became the company General Manager. Coastal Financial reopened production, but by 1988 were operating with only 105 employees and producing 50 boats per year, due to declining sales and competition with the used boat market. The company was again closed in 1988 and sold to a

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

investment company who re-opened it, but went out of business that same year. The company was sold again by Coastal Financial in 1991. After passing through several owners it became the Endeavour Catamaran Corporation. , that company produces

catamaran A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-sta ...

motorboats A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the ge ...

at a new plant location in

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a popu ...

. At one time they produced sailing catamarans and even produced some of the former Endeavour monohull designs on a custom basis, including the Endeavour 42, Endeavour 45 and Endeavour 52 as late as 1992, but this business seems to have been ended before 2000. Original founder John Brooks was killed at his home in St Petersburg, Florida on 24 April 1996 in an apparent robbery attempt. He was 61 years old.

Boats

Summary of boats built by Endeavour: * Lancer 25 - 1975 * Endeavour 32 - 1976 * Endeavour 32 CB - 1976 * Endeavour 37 - 1977 * Endeavour 43 - 1979 * Endeavour 40 - 1981 *

- 1983 * Endeavour 35 - 1983 * Endeavour 38 - 1984 * Endeavour 38 CC - 1984 * CSY 51 - 1985 * Endeavour 42 - 1985 * Endeavour 51 - 1985 * Endeavour 52 - 1989 * Endeavour 54 - 1990 * Intercat 1500 - 1990 * Endeavourcat 30 - 1992 * Manta 40 - 1994

References

External links

{{Endeavour Yachts Endeavour Yacht Corporation

History

Boats

See also

References

External links