Founded in Watervliet, New York on 12 August 1908, the Hacker Boat Company is one of the longest-lived wooden boat companies in the world. Its founder, John Ludwig Hacker, was an extraordinary talent who has long been acknowledged as one of the world's leading naval architects and the greatest American motorboat designer of the 20th century. An accredited marine designer by the age of 22, Hacker had earned a name for himself by building a 30 foot runabout incorporating several innovations, most notably a revolutionary V-shaped hull that allowed his creation to reach speeds unheard of at the turn of the century.
In 1904, Hacker designed Au Revoir, which instantly set a world speed record; by the time he established the Hacker Boat Company, he had already built a wealthy clientele. In 1911 Hacker designed the first airplane floats (for the Wright Brothers) and the first successful stepped-hull hydroplane, the Kitty Hawk, the first to reach the “impossible” 50 mph mark on water and, between 1911 and 1915, the fastest boat in the world. A series of Kitty Hawks followed, each building on earlier design successes and in the end establishing the basic design parameters that today still define the American speedboat.
Apache II is consigned to the Mecum at Monterey Auction for sale on Saturday, August 14 at 3:10 PM.
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