New Hydrodyne Ad

I sent 2Mercs a Hydrodyne ad that I bought from Ebay awhile back. I tried to post it but it is a .pdf and I couldn't get it to post. But here's my comment on the ad - note the name of the company in the bottom right corner - Midwestern Industries, Inc. The mystery deepens. Jim - I'll run a corporate history on that company name with the Indiana Sec. of State and see what I find, just for fun, as we did with the other corporate names under which Hydrodynes were built.

 

Mark,

I hope that Bev Miller will get on here eventually and help with some of this. I think we have to remember that this was a tiny company building hand made hand laid custom boats in an age when that is not done in this price range.

I think Ab Sr particularly was just into building innovative stuff. The 18 ft hull still has the best wake in the industry (IMHO), and the design is 40+ years old. This in a time when the inboards have gone through untold numbers of bottom design changes. Take a look at how flat my boat runs at 16 mph in the picture under "show me your glass".

The fact that people are not buying them as family boats in spite of the quality and performance just proves how effective the media blitz type advertising is.

 

The requirement for the Hull Identification Numbers (HIN) to be stamped in the stern came into effect 11/1/72. Crosby Marine Engineering Corp with a manufacturers Identification Code (MIC) or "CMA" was established shortly after that in 4/12/73.

http://www.uscgboating.org/recalls/mic_detail.aspx?id=CMA

I wonder what the serial numbers looked like before that?

jim

 

OK,

Here is the answer:

The Crosby Aeromarine Company was a division of Midwestern Industries inc. in Grabill, Indiana.

I think Crosby Marine Engineering Corp was based in Spencerville, IN.

If you go over to Fiberglassics and look up Hydrodyne you will find some interesting historical information. I believe Bryan was involved in this research and may still have his original notes. I hope he will weigh in here.

jim

 

Last time I spoke with Brian Lawson he also said he had an old Hydrodyne owners group list but he wasn't sure he could find it.

 

Here is what it looks like to me so far:

Crosby Aeromarine (a division of Midwest Industries) was sold in 58 with Ab as a vice president. He was bought out in 59. In the early 60's Midwest Industries continued to build boats and called them Hydrodynes.

Crosby Marine Engineering Corp was formed in 73, and complied with the new serial number regs. They continued to build Hydrodynes until the early 80's.

The next company was Three Rivers Industries which also built boats called Hydrodynes but they were newly designed 20's and 17.6's. This was Ab Jr's company.

jim

 

Crosby Aeromarine Div. was sold to Archer-Daniel Midland Co in 1959, along with the Crosby name. The boat design was changed by ADM and they later closed down the boat division.
Dad (Ab Sr) started building Hydrodyne's in Fort Wayne, on the St. Joe Rd in late 1959 early 1960. I worked for him in Grabill,(as a child!!) and worked starting in 1960 thru 1962, and at various other times till 1972. This was under Midwestern Industries. The plant on St Joe Rd burnt down,(1961) as did the one in Grabill (1954) (Crosby)that was rebuilt, and the one in Harlan (1962) rebuilt. Dad closed the business in 1972, in Harlan. He and Tom, started Crosby Marine Engineering Corp. in Spencerville in 1973 and built Hydrodyne's until Dad Sold his interest in the Company. Ab, (brother) started Three Rivers Industries in Ft Wayne, built the 20's Inboard and outboard, and the 17'6" until he sold the company. Tom bought the 20" Outboard molds from Ab and started in building them in late 1995. The tradition goes on in St Joe Indiana.