The Wellcraft Factory: How America's Greatest Speedboat Company Was Destroyed and Sold to France

The Wellcraft Factory: How America's Greatest Speedboat Company Was Destroyed and Sold to France. By 1985, the Wellcraft Scarab 38KV was the most recognizable speedboat in America. Not because of what it did on the water — though it could do seventy knots and outrun almost anything that floated. Because of what it did on television. Sonny Crockett drove one in Miami Vice. More than ten million viewers watched it every week. Orders at the Sarasota, Florida factory went up twenty-one percent in a single year. Bill Davis and Ed Crafton started Wellcraft in Sarasota in 1955 with wooden runabouts fourteen feet long. By 1995 they had built more than 250,000 boats. The Airslot hull. The Scarab line. The speedboat of a generation. Then in 1984, NBC called Wellcraft asking for a boat for Miami Vice. Wellcraft said no. 🔔 Subscribe before you go. 💬 Drop your Wellcraft story in the comments. . . . . . . . . #WellcraftMarine #ScarabBoats #WellcraftScarab #miamivice #SpeedboatHistory #vintageboats #americanmanufacturing