History

[Dana A]

After seeing posts of who designed the hull, some claim Ray Hunt, some claim Richard Bertram.
started to do some digging on it and found these and figured I'd share
Saw the V30 and found that was the Regal Velocity, funny a pal of mine had a velocity in the 80's and loved that hull.



Alim Marine was located in North Miami until 1968. The previous owner George Blumberg took the molds for the v-20 to Sarasota where it became part of the new Wellcraft line I bought the plant in Norh Miami from Georgie B.as he was called. He had pushed out the true designers of the Alim V20 ( whose names I can no longer recall ) in order to get their patent on the V_STEP LIFT HULL. The former partners went on to build Vega Boats in Hialeah but failed . He then threatened suit on Glasspar, Bertram, SeaRay, etc if they did not pay him a royalty. Ray Hunt who had designed the Moppie for Bertram started a suit against him and challenged the Alim patent. Both lost out as the court declared both of their patents invalid due to earlier patents that eluded to the same principle. I built the V-30 (an exactly enlarged version of the v-20 fo a time) However newer designs from Jim Wynne and Walt Walters had made it obsolete and I gave it up. I raced a cut down version of the V-20 along with Randy Zimmerman that had a Chrysler hemi in numerous races. In it's day the Alim V-20 outperformed any other 20 footer in the world in rough water and it is still a great boat for that purpose as wellas to stay dry bcause of the rounded fore deck and unusual gunnell created by it.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/anyone-need-a-dream-for-today.685253/page-2












Source https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/anyone-need-a-dream-for-today.685253/page-2

 

[Destroyer]

Interesting. Thanks for the info Dana!

 

[Dana A]

I think that pretty solid info from a reliable source and found it funny that it was on a physics forum.
Would be nice to find those true designers names

Maybe the two partners who started Vega boats, the Vega hull looks very similar

https://www.erclassics.com/vega-mistral-gt-super-v8-1966-vfb68/

 

[steplift20]

The vega hull doesn't look anything like the V 20 not even close, the V is a far more better looking hull.

 

[spareparts]

the Velocity hull was a Steve Stepp design

 

[jesemd]

The advertisement here (https://books.google.com/books?id=sEhSZBSdLKcC&lpg=PA94&dq=alim boats&pg=PA69#v=onepage&q&f=false) shows the V-30 was a 150% scale V-20.

It also mentions Alim has contracted Glasspar to build the boats.

Here is a review of the V-18. Not sure if it is the same as the later Wellcraft 18 center console, but it looks close.
https://books.google.com/books?id=T... boats&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q=alim boats&f=false


I attached a few Alim advertisements I found also.

 

[billfish16]

Thank you for sharing!

 

[Pipe_Dream]

The advertisement here (https://books.google.com/books?id=sEhSZBSdLKcC&lpg=PA94&dq=alim boats&pg=PA69#v=onepage&q&f=false) shows the V-30 was a 150% scale V-20.

It also mentions Alim has contracted Glasspar to build the boats.

Here is a review of the V-18. Not sure if it is the same as the later Wellcraft 18 center console, but it looks close.
https://books.google.com/books?id=T... boats&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q=alim boats&f=false


I attached a few Alim advertisements I found also.

Very cool.

 

[jesemd]

Here is some more:


Bottom of the page says Wellcraft introduced the V-20 in 1968, so that is four years after Alim had Glasspar start producing the design.
https://books.google.com/books?id=p...=RA4-PA121#v=onepage&q=v-20 wellcraft&f=false


This ad claims Ray Hunt designed the hull. And that your wife will go fishing with you now.
https://books.google.com/books?id=m...ft&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q=v-20 wellcraft&f=false

 

[Pipe_Dream]

Here is some more:


Bottom of the page says Wellcraft introduced the V-20 in 1968, so that is four years after Alim had Glasspar start producing the design.
https://books.google.com/books?id=p...=RA4-PA121#v=onepage&q=v-20 wellcraft&f=false


This ad claims Ray Hunt designed the hull. And that your wife will go fishing with you now.
https://books.google.com/books?id=m...ft&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q=v-20 wellcraft&f=false

I love my boat, but "full-sized V-berths?"

 

[bgreene]

Chris Craft had a boat they named Scorpion .
Seemed same Hull as V and boats look close to same

 

[nymack66]

Thanks for posting, an awesome piece of history, good to know.

 

[jesemd]

I love my boat, but "full-sized V-berths?"

Perhaps if you spent years offshore racing, your spine is compressed enough that you would fit?

 

[jesemd]

This shows a Popular Science review of the Glasspar V-20. Mentions 15 foot seas during the offshore run. No thanks.

https://books.google.com/books?id=r...20&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q=glasspar v-20&f=false

And here is an advertisement for the Glasspar V-20

https://books.google.com/books?id=R...-20&pg=PA95#v=onepage&q=glasspar v-20&f=false

By 1967-68 Glasspar was advertising a different Deep V 20 footer. I guess this is when Wellcraft swooped in bought the design.

An actual Glasspar in the wild:

 

[jesemd]

Advertisement featuring a beautiful yellow V from 1974.

https://books.google.com/books?id=7...g=RA4-PA21#v=onepage&q=wellcraft v-20&f=false

Who remembers readers service cards?

https://books.google.com/books?id=o...=RA2-PA118#v=onepage&q=wellcraft v-20&f=false

By 1971 the Center Consoles were on the market.

https://books.google.com/books?id=K...g=RA1-PA84#v=onepage&q=wellcraft v-20&f=false

Mercury performance bulletin from 1969 (from Fiberglassics.com)

 

[jesemd]

Chris Craft had a boat they named Scorpion .
Seemed same Hull as V and boats look close to same

There was a guy named Mike Carrigan floating around on some forums who told many tales about the South Florida boat building industry in the 60's and 70's. If I remember correctly, Dick Genth took over Wellcraft around 1969 and expanded them from a local builder into a national brand. The first thing he did was purchase the V-20 design. The V-20 became a sales leader among all brands and when he left Wellcraft to run Chris-Craft, he wanted to recreate the magic over there. He simply copied the V-20 as close as possible to create the Scorpion. It never had sales numbers to match the Wellcraft though.