Hacker-Craft, the American Riva

While Riva and Dubourdieu were enjoying success in the 1920s in Europe, in America, John Hacker had a chance meeting with Henry Ford in a Detroit machine shop in 1911. Hacker, a self-taught naval architect, built the fastest runabout in the world, the Kitty Hawk II, going 50 mph. He went on to build a series of Kitty Hawks, resulting in breaking four sea-speed records. He then redesigned the runabout with a V-bottom, a mid-ship engine and a front-controlled cockpit that became the classic design. In 1914, Hacker moved to Detroit and opened the Hacker Boat Company.

In 1921, Belle Isle Boat and Engine requested Hacker to build six runabouts. The boats, called Belle Isle Bear Cats, were popular with prominent owners like J.W. Packard and Henry Ford. In that same year, Hacker opened a satellite facility in Mount Clemens, Michigan, moving the entire boat building operation to Mount Clemens two years later.

Hacker’s gleaming mahogany runabouts were then capturing the public imagination with their elegant design and record-breaking speed, quickly becoming the must-have for the rich and famous. In 1930, the King of Siam ordered a custom-built 40-foot (12 m) runabout powered with an 800 horsepower (600 kw) Packard engine.

Hacker weathered The Great Depression by taking on a business partner, John Mcready, in 1935, who assumed day-to-day control of the company. Meanwhile, Hacker experienced his golden period: he was responsible for an unbelievable number of racing winners: over twenty water speed records, five Gold Cup winners, four President's Cup winners, among others.

In 1939, Hacker was commissioned by eccentric millionaire George Whittell to build him a masterpiece-a 55 ft (17 m) commuter runabout named Thunderbird. He requested that the hull and cockpit resemble the fuselage of his personal DC-2 Airplane. Fashioned of double-planked mahogany and brushed stainless steel, Whittell could zip about Lake Tahoe with unmatched speed and style.

During the 40s and 50s, Hacker worked for the US government, contributing to WWII by re-designing Army Air Force Rescue Boats, winning an award of excellence for wartime production. In 1952, Hacker Boat was awarded a large government contract for the construction of 25 picket boats for the U.S. Navy and 112 crash boats, 20 ft (6.1 m) sedan utility boats, and target boats. However, by 1959, Hacker-Craft had fallen on hard times.

It was Bill Morgan who resurrected the Hacker name in 1959. For decades, he built the boats at his boat yard on Silver Bay (Lake George) NY. However, at the time of his death in 1984, Morgan was embroiled in a lawsuit with former speedboat racer Robert Lynn Wagemann, over an informal 2004 agreement Morgan made to sell Wagemann Hacker-Craft and Morgan Marine. Wagemann sued Morgan in September 2009, claiming breach of contract. As the lawsuit wore on, Wagemann sold his interest in Hacker-Craft in 2011 to New Jersey investor George Badcock.

The Capital Region Economic Development Council of New York offered $600,000 in state tax credits to relocate Hacker-Craft’s boat-building and restoration shops to larger facilities in Queensbury, Warren County, but also to keep Hacker-Craft in the state of New York.

Hacker-Craft was recently named as one of “America’s Top 50 Products” by Forbes Magazine, featuring their boats in advertising campaigns for many of the world’s premier products, including brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Marks & Spencer, Tommy Bahama, and Neiman Marcus.