Thursday, June 28, 2012

Interior Redux

After we got her home, we pulled the front and back seats and took them to Marce at Surf City Upholstery in Huntington Beach. Marce is a great guy who you might know from watching Chip Foose's Overhaulin. Marce redid the seats with color matching vinyl and sewed us a nice two piece grey marine-grade carpet.

The rear seat folds down and flips forward to access the fuel cell and batteries.

The front seat features a  center glovebox / arm rest.
The back of the front seats include storage cubbys.

The dash includes the original vintage Airguide speedometer flanked by the matching Scott tachometer and integrated start switch and electronic choke panel.
The "Styled by Raymond Lowey" dash plaque below the bow/stern lamp switch.

If you look closely at the photos you will see the inside of the boat is painted grey. The previous owner new floors installed by the previous owner.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Dorsett and Flying Scott History

1960 Dorsett Belmont

Manufactured in Santa Clara California, Dorsett Plastics Company began producing Endura Craft boats in 1955. In 1958, the line became Dorsett Boats. The founder Richard W. Dorst, (Dick) was a US Navy veteran, University of California graduate engineer, and alumni of the Harvard Business School.

In 1960, Dorsett was acquired by Royal Little's Textron, Inc. The company was retained as the Dorsett Marine division. In 1964, Dorsett became independent once again when Textron sold the Santa Clara Division of Dorsett Marine back to Dorsett Plastics Co. Finally, American Marine Industries (AMI) acquired Dorsett in 1968, keeping Richard Dorst as manager. AMI liquidated the Santa Clara plant in 1970. Upon liquidation several of the Dorsett molds were sold to other boat manufacturers who continued building boats similar to the Dorsett line for several more years.

Of particular note, in 1959 Dorsett announced  a styling partnership with famed industrial designed Raymond Loewy. Among other things Lowey designed  the Studebaker Avante, various Coca-Cola machines including the famous "boat motor" counter-mounted fountains. He also designed the Lucky Strike logo, the US Mail logo and the paint scheme for Air Force 1.

The 1959 Dorsett brochure promoting Raymond Loewy's styling partnership featured illustrations of a dash glovebox, fold-down seat backs and compartments in the rear deck.

Although Dorsett boats continued to have the "Styled By Raymond Loewy" badges on the dash for several years, none of the three items from the 1959 brochure are included in my 1960 Belmont model.

If anyone has any more information on Loewy involvement with Dorsett, I would love to learn more!

 

McCulloch Flying Scott 60

In the 1960's boat motors were usually installed by the dealer so a new boat could have any one of a variety of "correct" motors. Our Belmont was equipped with a McCulloch-Scott Flying Scott 60 hp motor. This motor was highly respected because of its high hp to weight ratio and it is considered to be "sexy" motor because of is visually striking cowl design.

This outboard engine weighs approximately 168 pounds. It has 3 cylinders. The pistons have a 63.3 displacement. The bore width is 3.13" and the stroke length is 2.75". This model has a electric starter.

Scott-Atwater Mfg. Co. was started in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was purchased by McCulloch Corp. in 1956. McCulloch changed the brand to Scott, followed by Scott-McCulloch.

Robert McCulloch, founder of McCulloch Corporation along with his two siblings, inherited his Grandfather's fortune on 1925 and  pursued engineering at Princeton University in 1928, but transferred to Stanford a year later. He took with him his love for boat racing, and by the time he graduated in 1932, he had won 2 national championship trophies for outboard hydroplane racing. It was said he was prouder of his championships than his college education.

McCulloch was already building small gasoline engines at the time he purchased Atwater Scott in 1956. His main competitor in the boat engine business was Evinrude (OMC). Robert McCulloch was married to the daughter of Steve Briggs, co-founder of both Briggs and Stratton and, with Ralph Evinrude, of Outboard Marine.

In spite of Evinrude’s market lead, McCulloch pursued the outboard market for a decade. Eventually becoming the world's third largest manufacturer of outboard motors.

During this time McCulloch's passion for boat racing led him to Lake Havasu in search of a test site for his boat motors. McCulloch purchased 3,500 acres of lakeside property where he built his boat motor testing facility known as Site 6. He eventually purchased an additional 26 square miles parcel of barren desert, that would become the site for Lake Havasu City.

While Scott-Atwater manufactured primarily small motors McCulloch pushed the envelope chasing boat racing speed records and in 1958 the new 3 cylinder 60 hp Flying Scott was introduced. The Scott 60 was popular in NOA OPC racing 1958 and 1959 where it enjoyed some success, especially setting speed records. The displacement of the 60 was later increased to a 75 hp design. It is rumored that there are some late 1961 "sleeper" 75's that are badged as 60's.

At retail, Scott outboard motors were sold with several then-unique features for an outboard motor, including a dash mounted tach and a full Neutral position controls.

McCulloch closed the doors on the outboard boats & motors division in 1967. In 1968 McCulloch became internationally famous for moving the London Bridge piece by piece to Lake Havasu City in an effort to promote the sale of land in his developing community of Lake Havasu City.

If you stumbled upon this blog via searching for Dorsett Belmont information your best resource will be at fiberglassics.com. The community there is great, especially if you are trying to bring and old boat or motor back to life.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Trailer it home

Since the boat has what appears to be the original Superior Mfg Co.trailer and it had been stored for 4+ years, the first thing we did was to take it to the local Les Schwab tire store for a new set of shoes (tires) and wheel bearings. The trip from Sacramento to Newport Beach in Southern California is about an 8 hour drive and the last thing we wanted to do is to spill this boat all over the freeway.

A nice slow drive down the 5 Freeway on a Sunday morning through LA and we arrive home with the little Dorsett.


Friday, June 1, 2012

One of the two happiest days

They say the two happiest days of a boat owners life is the day you get your boat and the day you sell your boat... This is our Dorsett Belmont. We purchased it in Sacramento California in the spring of 2012 for $1200.






The boat is 15' with the original 1960 Flying Scott 60 HP motor and is the "luxury" model with a rear forward facing seat. The boat is in original condition and we are the third owners of this garage-kept survivor. The seller said it was running when he last used it 4 years ago... but it was having starter issues.