General Marine Co. from 1970's in Fountain Valley ?

[cmayer]

Anyone have information on this manufacturer from back in the day? I've found a few boats from this manufacturer and they all seem to have the name Ranger whether it's a 19' jet or a 24' i/o. the MIC database shows it was in Fountain Valley until August of '79 and then was revived by Edgar Heinrich in Florida from 1989-2003.

Any info on the hulls from when they were in Fountain Valley? The 20' jet that I picked up seems to have lines very similar to later Commander boats.

I just can't find anything about the company or any hulls they may have splashed in the late 70's. They seemed to like BBFs and Panther Jets. Seems to be the rigging on the old for sale adds that I've found on other forums.

 

[Kylemenz1]

Sorry I have no information for you, but welcome to the forum.

 

[cmayer]

Thanks for the welcome! I've lurked for quite some time, but just picked up this boat. It's an open bow 1978 General Marine Ranger.

Looks like the mold may have come from Omega as one of the first lower profile open bows. Rochell Craft out of Oklahoma used the same mold and the boats are identical except Rochell seemed to favor Golden Eagle pumps, Omega used Berks, and General Marine used Panther.

I just got the boat home late last night, but plan on going through it pretty good this weekend. Will be interesting to see what I find.

I just like knowing the history behind the things I own. With these boats from the 70's though it seems like everyone was going through molds.

 

[DeltaSigBoater]

Welcome aboard.

Post some pictures of what you got, and others will start chiming in.

 

[HavasuHaulin]

I had a general marine 21' day cruiser with a panther pump, it was a nice looking boat, rode great , but the lay up quality wasn't the best, that thing had stress cracks everywhere. I will post a pic later.

 

[cmayer]

One of the stories is that the boats were a budget layup with chopper guns and are built pretty heavy.

Only pictures I have are from the sale add. I drove 12 hours round trip to pick it up yesterday. Got home at 1am, woke up at 6 and went to work. I can't wait to get home tonight and look it over again. Spent a good chunk of time with the previous owner, but it's not the same as when it's your own.

 

[HavasuHaulin]

Is that an open bow conversion? Here is a pick of mine back in the day..

 

[cmayer]

From what I can tell, it's not a conversion.

That's a clean looking day cruiser too. Was it a full stringer hull?

 

[dallazbain]

I just recently bought a ranger as well. I was hoping maybe more info has come out. Mine is a 22ft closed bow jet with a 454 and a berkley jet it says it a silver bullet addition. Any information would help