fiberform did they even exist?

[ian laing]

I have recently bought and am restoring my first boat. It is a 1974 fiberform 22.5'' sitka with fly bridge. I have googled till my eyes hurt trying to find information on this boat. all I have found is it was canadian made and bayliner bought them out in the 80's does anyone know anything else about these boats. as far as I can tell these boats have very strong hulls and wher very nice boats in there time. any info will be greatly appreciated...

 

[charmc]

I remember them, seemed like reasonably good for production boats.

Some Fiberform folks get together here: http://my.boatus.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51306

 

[PAR]

Yep, old Fiberform, I even had one back in the late 70's. They were heavy chopper gun boats, typical of the era, though slighty better in quality then some of the other, bigger production number, manufactures. Bayliner will not admit to the purchase of Fiberfrom (not an uncommon trait with them).

They had the typical issues which collectively haunted darn near all the manufactures back then. Stringers, soles, transoms, bulkheads and tabbed wooden components, should all be suspect at this age, so inspect carefully and don't skimp on the resin like they did.

Is there something specific you'd like to know?

 

[Ike]

Try Fiberglassics http://fiberglassics.com/ I found some info there about Fiberform.

I found some for sale on iboats.com

There are a lot of other sites selling old Fiberform boats as well.

 

[ian laing]

I know of this fiberglassics site and found that no one responds to posts and the site is very vague. thank you for your input.

 

[Ike]

Boat companies come and go like some people change their socks. Most are small businesses and sell only regionally. The best thing to do is contact other owners, maybe start an owners association. Put together a web site with info, pics, scanned manuals etc. All this takes time and dedication but a there are lot of old boats that have owners associations.

Here is a long thread on another forum on Fiberform. Not a lot of history but a lot of people with the same problem you have. http://www.everythingboats.com/asksurveyor/forum/bbs.pl?read=8325
Here's another on BoatUS forums http://my.boatus.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51306

There sure are a lot of them on sale on the internet so there must be someone out there who knows something about them.

 

[Ike]

Fiberform was a Pacific NW company and I knew there had to be someone around who knew something about it. I finally ran into one yesterday. He worked there briefly. Fiberform was sold, lock, stock and barrel to Bayliner. He said that the guy to talk to is Bill Bongers, the president of Skippers Bills in Spokane Washington http://www.skipperbillsinc.com/.

 

[Hitchhiker]

I found some significant info on Fiberform.
http://www.barstudios.com/barnone/fiberform.htm

 

[IronRoamer]

I own a 1978 Fiberform Baja 2650, apparently it is the "Chinook" model. The boat is 28' LOA, has a flybridge, and a single Volvo 255hp with the AQ280 S/P. According to the USCG plate it will hold 18 passengers. Has a 75 gallon plastic tank, and upper and lower helms. Also, it has a shower/head in the salon.

It is not chopper gun construction, other than some of the interior glass. I have patched a faired out a few unnecessary thru-hulls, seeing the crossection of the hull, and the pattern in the bilge, it is sandwiched woven roving, the smaller, or older models may have been chopper gun.

I gutted the interior, which was in nice shape for the age, too much heavy plywood used though. I removed about 500 lbs worth of 3/4" plywood! Once gutted, I was able to inspect the subfloor, 3/4" plywood laminated with about 3/16" of glass. I took small core samples of the inner/outer stringers, the boat is extremely solid, and I thought my old 1982 Sea Ray SRV220 was solid. The only delamination I found was on the cockpit deck.

As far as I can tell, the name had vanished by 1980 (that is the most recent model I've seen labeled as such)

My cursory research shows that they built flybridge models from 22'-32' in all styles, sportfish, sedan, one common trait is the dual helm, possibly due to the fact that they were designed in the PNW, read wet/cold. I have more pictures of my specimen, if any fellow FF owners need some continuity.

 

[Jon Morrow]

I have tried a lot of research too and am pretty much empty-handed.
I have a 1970, 20', with twin chevy 4 cyl. engines.
If you come up with any leads please forward it.
Thank you.

 

[Typhoon]

I own a 1978 Fiberform Baja 2650, apparently it is the "Chinook" model.

.

I've worked on Bayliners here (east coast of Australia) that are IDENTICAL to that boat(even down to the rail work), so I would agree that Bayliner ended up with the moulds. Given how strikingly close they are/were, I would even guess that perhaps Bayliner was still building them in the same factory, using the same tooling, patterns etc. Even the windows and hull fittings are the same as the Bayliners.
That's all I have to add.

Regards, Andrew.

 

[mark775]

So, they weren't built in Canada (the one had a USCG plate)?

 

[ibuildm]

I worked for Fiberform from 1969 to 1978. The company was started by Don Barnes in the late 50's. He died about 2 years ago. They were built in Spokane, Wa. During the time I was there they also had plants in Edenton, N.C. and Kelona, B.C. Canada. They built boats from 14' to 33'. The Spokane plant was located in Spokane Industrial Park Building 21 and shortly after I left they built a brand new plant a couple of miles away in Spokane Valley.
I started in Jan 1969 and my job was to grind the edges of the decks after they came to our building from the lamination department. This was aways the job that the new guy did. Lucky for me they hired another guy two days later so I got out of that crappy job. I drilled holes for all the deck hardware for a few months and then got transferred to the woodshop. That was the best department to work in since you had to be a craftsman to build the interiors in the cabin boats and you didn't work around itchy fiberglass too much. At their peak production they built 24 boats per day and ran 3 shifts. A few years later I got moved to the new Executive Yacht Division where they built the 28, 31 and 33 foot boats. I built the interiors and also installed the water and AC systems. They were built in the Spokane Industrial Park in Building 21. They started building these about 1975 or 1976 and they must have stopped when Bayliner took over. I left in November 1978 right before the gas crunch came and they laid off many of the workers.
Fiberform has been owned by a few different companies. Don Barnes sold out to US Industries in the early 70's and later started Sunrunner Boats. Later it was bought by AMF who also owned Harley Davidson at the time. It ended up being bought again by US Industries who also owned Bayliner. US Industries kept it going under the Fiberform name for a year or so and then phazed it out and started building Bayliners in the Spokane plant. By this time the NC and BC plants were long gone. They built Bayliners in Spokane until the 90's and then closed the boat plant. There was a seperate building where all the wiring harnesses were built for all the Bayliner plants across the country. It continued building harnesses until about 10 years ago when it was closed. The building is now used as a lumber storage yard.
Tim

 

[Ike]

Would you make post for Fiberform on Fiberglassics, http://www.fiberglassics.com/library/Fiberform . They have nothing on this company.

 

[Luv 2]

22.5 Fiber From Boat

Ian, I have owned my boat for some ten years, and I have checked on line numerous time to see if there was another one like mine out there.

They are a great little lake boat, especially for the larger lake like the one that I live on, Harrison Lake.

I really enjoy mine, and have spent a lot of time and money making her, a one of a kind boat.