Art Defever has passed...

I concur with Marin. When I know it would be sacrilege to Photo-Shop a mod on a boat, it must be something in tune with the sea. I think Bill Garden understood Poseidon.

I've not seen an Alaskan 46 that I'm aware of. The only Alaskan I've seen in person the 49 I think I posted a shot of earlier in this thread.

This is my all-time favorite boat design running at it's required-by-the-Navy minimum top speed of 41 knots during pre-delivery acceptance testing at Elco. In the words of a famous PT skipper, "Sight picture? We don't need no stinkin" sight picture."

Not Garden or deFever but a great design in my eyes. Tom Fexas liked it a lot, too. He said his famous Midnight Lace design is based on the Elco PT hull design.

Marin said:

Tom Fexas liked it a lot, too. He said his famous Midnight Lace design is based on the Elco PT hull design.

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Interesting that you bring up Tom Fexas. He designed the "Mikelson" line of sport fishers that are home based, here, in San Diego. I met him years ago while he was inspecting (Measuring) the hull of a one off 72' Mikelson SF. Tom was quite a guy and his Midnight Lace is a classic. I bought my 54' Mediterranean from Mikelson years ago and have communicated with Dick Peterson & Pat Sullivan (owners) on & off over the years. Great guys...IMO, the best all around sport fishers out there. Their boats have won many of the really big bill fisher tournaments. Any of you sport fisherman coming through San Diego, give them a call to see if you can board one of their boats close up & personal. Your wives will love you if you buy one! Tell them I sent you and they'll probably discount the boat nonono. Nick Theos is the contact.

psneeld said:

William Garden
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Thanks for posting that Passagemaker link, great read.

Marin said:

This is my all-time favorite boat design running at it's required-by-the-Navy minimum top speed of 41 knots during pre-delivery acceptance testing at Elco.

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Not an Elco, and not a DeFever, but have you seen the project boat for sale on eBay?

World Class Motor Yacht Priced At Less Than 1/3 of Market Value!!! in Powerboats & Motorboats | eBay Motors

Scott Welch
Island Eagle

Dair & Doris

Tad Roberts said:

Looking randomly through a pile here I found the Alaskan 46 built by American Marine advertized in April of 1968, and another ad for the Alaskan 55 by American Marine in Yachting of November, 1971, design credit to Robert Doris.

And yes, the A46 is clearly a compressed version of Blue Heron.....

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The answers are half right and half wrong, for a simple reason. Bob Dorris was Dair's last assistant. Dair was dying. Dair did most of the work and Bob carried out the details and finished the job. Larry Drake was a manufacturer in Southern California and Dair did some boats for him. Dair was the master of high speed planing hulls and high speed props (done for the Gold Cup boats). Dair did the fastest boats of WWII, the air sea rescue craft and after the war started with the Harco 40 (Hollywood favorite) and in the Puget Sound area Fairliner cruisers and runabouts. He did boats overseas and the Mojo 85 that was caught in the 85' wave and smashed on the beach with only a cracked windshield support. Dair did some boats for Fellows & Stewart. His first powered boat was the 63' crash boat at Miami Ship.

Marin said:

I've not seen an Alaskan 46 that I'm aware of. The only Alaskan I've seen in person the 49 I think I posted a shot of earlier in this thread.

This is my all-time favorite boat design running at it's required-by-the-Navy minimum top speed of 41 knots during pre-delivery acceptance testing at Elco. In the words of a famous PT skipper, "Sight picture? We don't need no stinkin" sight picture."

Not Garden or deFever but a great design in my eyes. Tom Fexas liked it a lot, too. He said his famous Midnight Lace design is based on the Elco PT hull design.

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The Elco is a British design (Hugh Scott Paine). It had three Packards to do the 41 knots, Dair Long's larger 85 with two Packards did 34 knots. You will see the Elco dragging it's tail. If you see one of Dair's high speed boats, the fastest of the war, not the Elco, you will see the chine more parallel. Dair used least wetted resistance theory. For power and weight they were faster and handled better. The man who prepped the Elco pleasure cruisers, Harco and Fairliner pleasure craft for the dealers in Newport Beach said the West Coast boats, both Dair's designs, were better built, faster and handled better. The Elco was a good boat, the best of the East Coast, but Dair was the master of high speed planing hulls. The only movie showing real Elcos was They Were Expendable. PT 109, McHale's Navy, etc. were all Dair's 85' crash boats with modified superstructures. One operational PT survives in Portland, OR. There are a number of 63' and 85' crash boats in operation but none with the Packards. There is a completely restored 85' in Long Beach with the 50 cal. machine guns (spiked) but with Detroit Diesel engines.

RIP Mr Defever

Yes, Art's ashes were buried at sea off Pt. Loma on May 11, 2013. A fly-by of 3 jets from the North Is. Naval Air Station helped in the send off. His ashes were carried to the resting place on a 65 foot DeFever, the "Coley D."

What a way to exit. Very proud to be responsible for our Alaskan 46