They rode the wave of the phenomenal recreational boom of the fifties, making nearly thirty boats each month. Most other builders included this as a standard item on their boats. One unusual item was that they charged extra for providing chrome plated “Chetek” nameplates for the hull sides. Like other boat makers of the time, they offered many accessories such as bow and stern lights, factory installed steering, cleats and chocks, mooring covers, seat cushions and pennants. All of their boats could be ordered with optional fiberglass below the spray rails. The mahogany decked and hulled “Holiday” model had a yellow fiberglass bottom as a standard feature. As years went by, new designs were introduced, many from the drawing board of Emil Mix.Ī 1955 advertisement for Chetek touted their boats as permanently leakproof with a fiberglass bottom. Chetek even used the name “Aqua-Flyer” for one of their models, a name used earlier by Dunphy Boat sans the hyphen. In a recent interview he said that the first Chetek boats looked awfully close to a Dunphy or Thompson. He was head finisher for a period of time. Horton was a “finisher,” fabricating and installing the decks, covering boards, combing, seats and other interior accessories. He began working for Chetek Boats soon after their genesis in 1947 and continued for a decade.
Loren Horton, now a spry age 74, said that the company made truckload after truckload of boats for Montgomery Wards which sold them under the “Sea King” brand name. Chetek had to add a 28 by 150-foot building just for storage of boats for Wards. Boats were being built for Montgomery Ward in 1953. It was a mid-decked runabout that could beįactory equipped with windshield and steering assembly. In 1952, Chetek’s most deluxe model was the cedar strip Aqua-Flyer. After another fire in 1965 destroyed most of the boat works, a new structure was built. A 50 x 100 foot woodworking shop and lumber warehouse was destroyed by fire on 22 January 1963 and later rebuilt. Additional production facilities were built in 1950, 1952, 1954, and 1955. Vern Larsen was president, Emil Max was vice-president and Gwen Larsen was secretary-treasurer of the new company. The company letterhead at that time declared “It’s a CHETEK, by heck”, reflecting the down home attitude of the business!
The first boats rolled off the production line a month later and the first “Chetek Boat” was purchased by Ed Holten. Work on renovating an existing barn near Chetek into new factory facilities began in April of that year. James sold the company and retired in 1947, therefore his son needed to find a new job. He had been vice-president and his father James Larsen had been president of Dunphy. It was headed by Larsen who had been associated with Dunphy Boat Corporation of Oshkosh prior to coming to Chetek. Newspaper accounts from The Chetek Alert of Chetek, Wisconsin in 1947 tell of the formation of a new boat building enterprise that year. Hoping to add to the economic base of the community, about thirty local citizens helped to underwrite the new venture. Sherrill was the local Johnson outboard motor dealer and he had knowledge of boats and he wanted Larsen to head a new boat works. Sherrill planted the idea of a new boat works for the city in Larsen’s head when he visited the Dunphy Boat Corporation booth at the Chicago Boat Show in January ’47. Vernon and Gwendolyn Larsen of Oshkosh along with Emil Mix formed Chetek Boat Corporation in 1947. It was felt that an article on the history of this boat company was deemed appropriate, so here goes This boat is currently undergoing restoration by the Bob Speltz Land-O-Lakes Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society. Bob Speltz, he purchased a fourteen foot long, 1954 Chetek “Aqua-Flyer” in August 1976.
According to page 34 in Volume IV of The Real Runabouts by Mr.
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