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Duroboat Over the Years

Duroboat has been in the US since 1983.    The 2008 model year will be the 25th for Duroboat. 

Duroboat has its roots in Australia.    An Australian builder of aluminum boats thought that neither riveted nor welded boats were tough enough or light enough to race rocky rivers or handle the rough Southern Ocean.  He developed a better way, the Durojoint. You can read more about the Durojoint in our Features section of this website.

The boat was brought to the US in 1983 where the inventor and a local Seattle Washington family teamed to start the Duroboat Manufacturing Company.   Since then over 9,000 Duroboats have been built in the Seattle area. Due to its unique construction method it has also been shipped in stacks all over the world.

Dealers in sevaral nations anxious to sell a high quality American made boat have undertaken final assembly so they could bring the boat to their customers.

In the mid 90's Duroboat opened a facitlity in Pensacola Florida. The boat found a great market acceptance in the South Eastern US but it proved difficult to manage a second site. And the faciltiy was closed in 1999. The main factory moved from downtown Seattle to the Village of Maltby which is about 25 Miles from Seattle in Shohomish County.

In 2001 the old company sold the Duroboat brand and technology to a new corporation DuroMarine. DuroMarine is a closely held corporation that was specifically formed to bring the traditional quality, performance and value that has always been a part of Duroboat to an expanded community of boaters and friends.

The pictures that follow show some early Duroboats, the first factory and some early low budget demonstrations of the strength and performance of the Duroboat.

 

Duroboats roots in Australian boat racing.

 

Illustration of Durojoint toughness ,  from the "takes a licken' and keeps on ticken", school of advertising.

 

 Road testing the Duroboat, with the boat ,as the road being tested.   Bodacious old demonstrations not withstanding, if you drive a car over your Duroboat we may be a little reluctant to honor the warranty.

 

Early Duroboat.  Bow deck instead of  bowshelf, and no interior paint. Interior paint was introduced to cut down on sunburned fishermen.

 

A couple of shots from the first factory.   The second one is almost art.

 

Definitly do not do this at home.  These were professional boat testers and even they may have had a loose screw or two.  It is a fishing boat not an airplane.

 

When we say hi performance hulls we mean good fuel economy, easy to plane, smooth ride.  Flight charectoristics are quite variable.   Keep your boat on the water.