RIP Art Carlson

[twocents]

Just received word that Art Carlson of Glastron Carlson boat building fame passed away on Monday evening. Definitely one of the true performance boat innovators in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. In the late 1970s the Glastron Carlson plant on Grove Street in Anaheim was consistently building 13 boats per day -- models from 16 to 27 feet. Very cool boats even today. Services are pending -- most likely in Garden Grove, CA in mid-August. Not many like him.

 

[mbrown2]

RIP...a boating legend gone....he was very innovative.

 

[koenig]

RIP.

Made some good boats. Parents friend had a CVX16, forget the outboard that powered it.

 

[Riverbound]

Tom Brown might not be back.

 

[OCMerrill]

I had a 15k sq ft building on Grove Street in Anaheim from 1990-1996. I wonder what his address was?

May he RIP and I dug the style and originality he added to boating in general.

 

[AzGeo]

Very open minded on hull and deck design, had some models that were ahead of their time.

 

[Classic Daycruiser]

Tom Brown might not be back.

Tom and JBB, my condolences to your friend and mentor.

 

[shueman]

RIP Art...

 

[twocents]

The Glastron Carlson plant in Anaheim was at 1177 Grove Street.

 

[Gelcoater]

What a bummer

He was definitely way ahead of his time,from tooling to interior layout to gel design,the whole package.

 

[Shaken Not Stirred]

Yes....a legend. Godspeed Art! You will be missed...

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

The Glastron Carlson plant in Anaheim was at 1177 Grove Street.

Were all glastrons made there or was there an east coast production facility as well? We had them on our local lakes growing up in New England, hard to imagine they all came from anahiem.

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

There is a company called Weartech International in the building today.

 

[Carlson-jet]

Were all glastrons made there or was there an east coast production facility as well? We had them on our local lakes growing up in New England, hard to imagine they all came from anahiem.

They had a plant in Texas as well.

R.I.P. Mr Carlson, I will hold a cold one up for you When I'm on the water next time in my Carlson.

 

[OCMerrill]

There is a company called Weartech International in the building today.

I was right across the street from Willard Marine. One of the more nicer buildings I leased when I was in the plastics business. This is just down around the corner.

I used to lease out some of my yard space to Willard from time to time.

 

[twocents]

The Glastron plant was located in Austin, TX. At one time, in the 1970s, Glastron was the largest (volume) boat builder in the world. At its peak, the Austin plant produced as many as 100 boats a day.

 

[Stainless]

RIP.

Made some good boats. Parents friend had a CVX16, forget the outboard that powered it.

I had one with 115 Johnson, fun little boat.

 

[sprintcvx]

Very sad news.. Rest in peace Art

 

[Wood Decks Rule]

Sad news to hear of Arts passing, as an owner of a 81 CVX-20 Intimidator that I have had for 18 years, it has been a great boat, and runs great for a small boat! A very innovative man that had great impact on the boating industry! He will be truly missed!

 

[doc_texoma]

Ancient thread - but this guy made the boats I fantasized about growing up and went on to have a couple as an adult and will likely have a couple more.

Kind of surprised that there are only two pages about this... Guy was pretty legendary ..

A beer tonight for you Art.. Thanks for all of the sales literature several years back.. I'll be scanning and posting in your memory.

 

[RiverDave]

Ancient thread - but this guy made the boats I fantasized about growing up and went on to have a couple as an adult and will likely have a couple more.

Kind of surprised that there are only two pages about this... Guy was pretty legendary ..

A beer tonight for you Art.. Thanks for all of the sales literature several years back.. I'll be scanning and posting in your memory.

Looking forward to seeing it!

RD

 

[koenig]

I had one with 115 Johnson, fun little boat.

Missed this post.

It was a great boat. I think a boat rental place in Kelowna rented them or something similar in the early to mid 80's.

 

[twocents]

Just a quick little aside to "Wood Decks Rule" comment about the CVX-20 Intimidator. When we initially tested the Intimidator it was a little "too fast" for Glastron corporate's liking (top speed 70-71 mph with a stock MerCruiser 5.7L/260 hp/Alpha Drive), so we had to lower the X-dimension about 3/4" and make a couple of minor bottom modifications to bring it back to around 66-67 mph. Incredibly fun boat to drive.

 

[rrrr]

The Glastron plant was located in Austin, TX. At one time, in the 1970s, Glastron was the largest (volume) boat builder in the world. At its peak, the Austin plant produced as many as 100 boats a day.

The plant in Austin churned out boats like this V-156. There are hundreds of them still around here in North Texas. Every once in a while I'll see a restored example, wouldn't mind owning one.

 

[Wombat]

RIP, very innovative guy.
Really loved that black Carlson boat that had the Kite detach from it, in one of the Bond movies l believe. :thumbup:

 

[twocents]

Okay...one more Art Carson/Glastron story and then I'll stop boring you. It was no secret that Art loved to work with movie and TV people (his James Bond connection was a perfect example). Anyway -- early 1980s, there was this Hollywood stuntman named Peter Horak from the Czech Republic (living in west L.A.) and he convinced Art to lend him a CVX-20 jet to attempt a new world boat jump distant record. Art got on-board (why not, sounded good to him) and Peter and "friends" built an erector-set looking steel boat ramp (with rollers) to make the jump. I got elected to go to Salton Sea (what better place for a record boat jump?) with the group and observe the maddness (no permits, no approvals, no nothing). It took nearly two days to get the ramp set-up and secured -- a Hollywood cameraman (Mark Morris) was present to film the jump (it was to be part of a documentary film about daredevil stunts). Since nobody really knew how sturdy the ramp was, or if it was at the right angle for a safe landing -- we all figured Peter was only going to get one shot at this (oh, and no medical standing by either). Long story made short, Peter hit the ramp at about 55mph and those rollers really worked -- I don't recall the exact distance, but it was out around 150 feet. The boat came down pretty tail heavy but it didn't crash and didn't sink. Peter was pretty much okay except he did break the bucket seat and wind up on the floor.

 

[mlt]

R.I.P. Art ....had a CVX 18 with a 350 mercruiser, way ahead of its time....he was an innovator and will be missed...MLT

 

[RitcheyRch]

Sad news. RIP

 

[RiverDave]

Thane from Nordic e-mailed me these photo's and caption after seeing the thread online.

Hey bud can you do me a favor here is one of my boats, this is my Art Carlson 1980 scimitar can you put it in the R.I.P. thread and give a thanks to the best designer ever! the guy was light years ahead of everyone!! (even me LOL!!!)

 

[doc_texoma]

I found a CSS-19 hull that I'm picking up this weekend... Decided after finding out he had passed I had to go ahead and buy the one Carlson I've always wanted but never owned... $600 will ensure it remains in the family until it turns into dust.

Will get those pics posted this week.. I have some pretty cool stuff including the sales brochure for the 33 (not the CSS 33) that Art built with Reggie Fountain..

 

[twocents]

There are lots of interesting Glastron, Glastron Carlson and Art Carlson stories. His Flying Wedge 33 (I did the brochure for that model, and took the helicopter action photos and video offshore around Dana Pt.) was a derivation of a race hull originally built in the U.K. and driven to a UIM speed record by Lady Arran (Fiona Colquhoun, age 71 at the time) at 102 mph on Lake Windermere around 1980.

The Scimitar was a really forward thinking design -- one of the first T-Top boats built off the original CV-23 model with a new deck. You've got to give Glastron Carlson R&D tooler guru, Gary Ferguson, a lot of the credit for the Scimitar -- he pushed hard to get that project off the drawing board and into production.

A lesser known Glastron in-the-movies scene happened in the movie, Alligator, a 1980 big screen release that is actually a pretty decent monster syfy flick. Lewis Teague was a young director at the time trying to break into the big-time, later earning Hollywood recognition as a skilled movie maker for movies like Indiana Jones....Jewel of the Nile. As the Alligator story goes, a young girl purchased a baby alligator at a carnival and when it got to be a nusiance, her dad flushed it down the toilet. Well, 12 years later, that alligator grew to giant proportions, living in the sewer system in L.A., feeding off of toxic dead animals -- who wouldn't be pissed? So, the alligator turns rogue and begins to go postal on people all over the city (personally, I was rooting for the alligator).

The Glastron scene is this: the alligator was supposedly spotted living in a pond in downtown L.A. at MacArthur park (on Alvarado Street between 6th and 7th -- not a nice part of town even in 1980). Our job was to take four Glastrons down to the set and arrive by 5:30am. We craned the four boats into the water by 7am but were not aware that we needed to get into cop wardrobe and drive the boats during the hunt scene. The special effects guys were already busy planting explosive depth charges in the pond which would explode when we drove the boats around (at 20-30 mph) hunting for the gator (the pond was only about 3' deep and we later became aware that plumbing for the various fountains in the pond were only about 2' deep). Teague diagramed the path he wanted us to run the boats and the special effect guys suggested that we should avoid running directly over the top of the explosives (they marked where the exposives were with fishing line and little bobbers). Long story not so short, we did three takes for the cameras and the exposives were a lot stronger than I imagined (they would rock the boat up hard on its side even passing 5 or 6 feet away). And the fountain plumbing...definitely not working at the end of the scene -- we snagged pipes on the drive units and destroyed props on every take.

If you get a chance...Alligator isn't a bad way to kill 90 minutes or so....and remember, don't flush your pets down the toilet or they will seek revenge.

 

[Wombat]

Who could ever forget this shot out of "Live and let Die" James Bond 1973


When l was a kid l had this brochure. Drooled over this boat for years.