Newport-Mesa goes from wood to glass

Kris O’Donnell

With the advent of fiberglass came a boom in boat construction in

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. During its heyday, fiberglass boat

making supported about 70 builders in the area.

“The first reinforcing material was cotton soaked in a polyester

resin,” said 43-year fiberglass boat builder, Richard Valdes.

In the mid 1950s Joseph McGlasson, of Costa Mesa, designed, built

and successfully marketed a 24-foot wooden sailboat, the Islander, in

Costa Mesa. Joseph came to ponder the idea of building his boat out

of fiberglass instead of wood and in 1961 approached a company named

Glas Laminates (owned by Dick Valdes since 1958) to help him.

McGlasson Boats -- later Wayfarer Yacht, and finally named

Islander Yachts in 1965 -- and Columbia Yachts were not the only

Costa Mesa boat builders using fiberglass, there was also Jensen

Marine, with the Lapworth-designed Cal 24, MacGregor Yachts and

Westsail who were all headquartered locally.

“Fiberglass made it easier to build boats,” MacGregor said.

“Start-ups were relatively inexpensive and the city of Costa Mesa

helped us in any way it could. Today, regulations would preclude most

[fiberglass] start-ups.”

New boat companies sprung up everywhere from large lots to back

yards.

“You couldn’t get down Placentia Avenue in the late 1960s,” said

MacGregor Yachts owner, Roger MacGregor. “There must have been a

dozen boat builders in a two-block radius of us. Every vacant lot had

a boat in it.”

Valdes said that everybody seemed to want to get into the act.

“In the early days, it was not uncommon for someone to buy a

finished boat, take a mold of the hull, make slight modifications and

begin producing their own glass boats,” Valdes said. “Things were

very loose in those days.”

Then came the sale, mergers and closures of more than 50 boat

manufacturers including venerable sailing names like Newport Boats,

Jensen Marine, Islander Yachts, Coastal Recreation, Ericson Yachts

and Glaspar.

Valdes said that all the big builders are gone due to a

combination of escalating property taxes, high resin prices -- 1960s

price was about 16 cents per pound, today it’s about 55 cents per

pound -- skyrocketing worker’s compensation, rising state income tax

and the institution of a 10% luxury tax on new boats in 1986, marked

an end to the one-time diversity of the industry.

“In addition to those companies, there was a huge industrial base

that supported them,” MacGregor said. “Delusions of grandeur caused

the demise of most firms. They grew out of control and sold to larger

conglomerates.”

MacGregor and Valdes agreed that in the early days there were more

than 70 boat builders in the Newport-Mesa area.

“We’re the last of the majors [fiberglass boat builders] -- there

are no other big builders in Costa Mesa,” MacGregor said.