old rigger
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Came across this brochure today as I'm kinda, maybe close to picking up another old, and hopefully last, Tahiti project. Brought back a ton of memories seeing these pages. Found it on a Hydro Stream owners site of all places.
This had to be '72 as there are no bubble decks yet, they would come in late '73 and in '71 Tahiti moved into this giant brand new shop that butted right up to the 605 freeway.
Looks like who ever owned this brochure got a quote for $1495.00 for a new boat.
Yes, I'm well aware how Tahiti is looked upon now but that's the shop I grew up in. Certainly not as cool as if I had grown up in the Schiada shop, my uncle worked there in the 60s, but I loved almost every minute of it. I've said it before but when I was a kid and the first shop was a block away from our house, going there was better than going to Disneyland to me. I couldn't believe my dad worked in this fucking amazing atmosphere with the sounds and smells (god I love the smell of resin) and I never in a million years thought I'd ever be able to do what he and the other riggers did. It seemed a monumental job to rig a boat to my 10 year old mind.
Anyway, I've worked in shops that built worse boats and quite a few that built better but this was fun fun fun.
This is the original 16 that started the Tahiti name for Schuster boats in late '64 early '65. He also built Performer and Tropicana boats under the Schuster Custom Boats name before selling the biz. He stayed on as president.
The infamous 'Toad'
The larger 'Toad' in the Marine Stadium with the tower in the background that displayed MPH and ET for the boat drags.
A Winter's worth of boat building in preparation for sales starting in April. All outboards, of course, and the boats on the left are Torinos waiting for their windshields to be installed.
One of my first jobs at the new building was to unload engines, Chevys, Fords and Oldsmobiles. The Olds out sold the other 2 combined. Cheaper.
That engines in the pic are about a weeks worth.
This rack was visible, the 16's standing on their transoms were too, as the North side of the shop was wide open. This is how Schuster kept some but not all of his riggers and laminators busy so they wouldn't go to another shop come busy season, he'd stockpile fully rigged and upholstered boats. Dad was lucky to be one of those guys.
Also one of my jobs back then when I was 15 was to unload these boats off the rack with the forklift and set them on trailers or dollys. The forks were probably 12-15 feet long. I was scared shitless that first time. I worked mostly weekends here, some afternoons after school, so there were others that did the same job durning the work day. I was the only kid to do that stuff though.
One lone tri-hull on the top shelf.
Lots of other shops did the same stock piling of ready to sell bare hulls or complete boats, Sangar, Kindsvater, Spectra to name a few.
This had to be '72 as there are no bubble decks yet, they would come in late '73 and in '71 Tahiti moved into this giant brand new shop that butted right up to the 605 freeway.
Looks like who ever owned this brochure got a quote for $1495.00 for a new boat.
Yes, I'm well aware how Tahiti is looked upon now but that's the shop I grew up in. Certainly not as cool as if I had grown up in the Schiada shop, my uncle worked there in the 60s, but I loved almost every minute of it. I've said it before but when I was a kid and the first shop was a block away from our house, going there was better than going to Disneyland to me. I couldn't believe my dad worked in this fucking amazing atmosphere with the sounds and smells (god I love the smell of resin) and I never in a million years thought I'd ever be able to do what he and the other riggers did. It seemed a monumental job to rig a boat to my 10 year old mind.
Anyway, I've worked in shops that built worse boats and quite a few that built better but this was fun fun fun.
This is the original 16 that started the Tahiti name for Schuster boats in late '64 early '65. He also built Performer and Tropicana boats under the Schuster Custom Boats name before selling the biz. He stayed on as president.
The infamous 'Toad'
The larger 'Toad' in the Marine Stadium with the tower in the background that displayed MPH and ET for the boat drags.
A Winter's worth of boat building in preparation for sales starting in April. All outboards, of course, and the boats on the left are Torinos waiting for their windshields to be installed.
One of my first jobs at the new building was to unload engines, Chevys, Fords and Oldsmobiles. The Olds out sold the other 2 combined. Cheaper.
That engines in the pic are about a weeks worth.
This rack was visible, the 16's standing on their transoms were too, as the North side of the shop was wide open. This is how Schuster kept some but not all of his riggers and laminators busy so they wouldn't go to another shop come busy season, he'd stockpile fully rigged and upholstered boats. Dad was lucky to be one of those guys.
Also one of my jobs back then when I was 15 was to unload these boats off the rack with the forklift and set them on trailers or dollys. The forks were probably 12-15 feet long. I was scared shitless that first time. I worked mostly weekends here, some afternoons after school, so there were others that did the same job durning the work day. I was the only kid to do that stuff though.
One lone tri-hull on the top shelf.
Lots of other shops did the same stock piling of ready to sell bare hulls or complete boats, Sangar, Kindsvater, Spectra to name a few.
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