K&C boats

I used to have one about 8 years ago. It was a nice boat. An older 17 1/2 Saturn hull. They used to be built in Duncan at one time. I can't remember when the last ones were built(maybe they still make them??) but I imagine most of them are showing their age now. I loved the hull design. It threw all the spray straight out to the side. Even in rough weather I never took spray in the boat.
 
I have a 16' K&C , 50HP Honda...
nice little boat, set up is good for fishing with 2 pedestal seats.
they are a little light when compared to double eagle or hourston.
K&C were made in Richmond for about 30 years before going out of business
in the early 90's.
There's a nice one on Used Victoria now 17'with a 115 merc.
Very clean , no price listed however.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
quote:papa, did you sell your Grady ?
Click to expand...

ya, she had to go :( - the transom needed replacing soon and I couldn't justify spending anymore money on her.


quote:There's a nice one on Used Victoria now 17'with a 115 merc.
Very clean , no price listed however.
Click to expand...

Ya I know, me and the old man just bought it ;) - super clean boat, although I'll miss the offshore fishing.
 
My first boat was a used 16.5 ft. K&C. I think it was a mid 70's vintage. It was a tough little boat, but had a very rough ride, especially over water with a slight chop.

Long live wild salmon!!!
lowrance.jpg
 
had a 17.5 77 vintage with a volvo aq140A engine and a 280 leg with bennent trim tabs

great little boat - spent many hrs with my dad fishing in that boat

curses to the guy who sold it to me may he always have flat tyres and engine trouble!

Anyways after I put in a used AQ140A it ran great over all I loved the deep V hull

had a super home built trailer - tilting - I could launch or trailer in 2ft water :D

solid hull top side could have been better overall a great basic well designed boat simple to use and maintain

Island Boy through and through
 
I've never liked them. The fiberglass always seemed a little thin for my taste. My buddy has one though and he goes out in Nanaimo in it. He's problably going to try Barkley this year in it too.

Take only what you need.
 
had an eighty nine 16foot. glass was delaminating on the hull, and walkthrough window leaked bad, hull flexed until it was scary, super light boat. older ones weremuch better.roller went through hull on mine from previous owner.he said very thin hull.wouldnt go out anymore in it after he saw how thin the hull was.1989 hull pounded like crazy i was forever adjusting speed and trim, nice looking boats though 15.6hourston is 10 times the boat.older k#c might be built a lot better.than the one i owned
 
I have a 1981 21 foot deep V. The transom has been replaced and has a aluminum pod with a rebuilt 225 Mariner off shore mounted on an adjustable bracket. In the process of repairing the stringers and installing the new fuel tank. With lots of free board and tons of floor space, including an in the floor "bin of death", it should be an awesome fishing machine. Should there be any fish to catch that is.
I have heard great things about the early K & C 's. It is a heavy boat and with the repairs, I am hoping the investment pays off, I will let you know....
 
Hey Fah Cups, You noticed I didn't say "I" did the work, I just didn't want to acknowledge you without your consent lest you be inundated with requests for assistance! But now the cats out of the bag. My good friend Fah Cups designed and built the Pod, installed the transom, and replaced the stringers, and much more, basically ran my but off as the masters assistant. Without his assistance I would never attempted such a project, something my wife may never forgive him for.:)
I have learned a lot along the way, and once it is completed, Fah Cups and I will no doubt be arguing about which vessel we are going to use. What a predicament![:p]
 
A little history on K & C boats


Susan Lazaruk
The Province

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

The B.C. boat builder who constructed thousands of pleasure boats still in use, and created the "world's largest bathtub" that floated in the early Nanaimo-Vancouver bathtub races, has died, just shy of his 69th birthday.
Peter Kaufmann owned K&C Thermoglass with his father, Bruno Kaufmann, and partner Andy Cruden. The Richmond-based boat building company produced up to seven boats a day and employed 200 people at its peak in the 1970s.
"It was the largest boat building company in the world at the time," said his sister, Hanne Nolte.
K&C was commissioned to build a 24-foot fibreglass bathtub -- christened Spirit of Nanaimo -- to promote Nanaimo as the "bathtub capital of the year" and the city's annual bathtub races. The Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society had the giant tub painted with slogans for the visit of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip to the city in May 1971.
Kaufmann was born April 7, 1940, in Treuenbrietzen (now Sabinchenstadt), near Berlin, to Bruno and Charlotte Kaufmann, who met in a beer garden during the 1936 Olympics in the German capital.
Nolte remembered her older brother, at the age of 13, built her a doll house complete with lights and furniture. It was the envy of her three friends, whom Kaufmann surprised with doll houses of their own the next Christmas.
"He was always with my dad, building things," said Nolte at her Coquitlam home. "He just picked things up. He built beautiful furniture."
He was protective of his younger and only sibling, once rescuing her from a fall into water when they were climbing trees and carrying her all the way home.
Their father, a master cabinet maker, built a wooden boat named the Sabine to enable the family to escape from East Germany down the River Spree in 1953. Nolte remembers the family being threatened by a Russian soldier to turn back or he would shoot, but the family got away unharmed.
"Peter and I thought we were going fishing but I remember my grandparents crying," she said.
The family emigrated to Canada and, at the age of 16, Peter found work at Sangster Craft in Vancouver. At 19, he was promoted to foreman.
Nolte remembers a 17-foot boat, the Mecki, her brother and father built in the front yard of their house on Alberni Street in Vancouver's west end, before they started K&C.
Their company, founded in 1960, was a frontrunner in designing and manufacturing boats, said Peter's stepson Richard Kaufmann, one of six children from two marriages.
Peter Kaufmann had plans for mass production with an auto-maker-style assembly line, an idea "well ahead of its time" that got sidelined by the economic downturn in the late 1970s.
However, his hull designs are still being used today, said Richard.
Richard Greenlaw of Thunderbird Yacht Sales in Sidney said K&C was a forerunner in the business. He noted that Kaufmann's design for a 26-foot boat was adopted by Commander when K&C ceased production in the late 1970s and is still being manufactured today.
"It was such a great design, it's virtually unchanged over 32 years," he said. "It was such a fabulous boat. They still command a huge dollar compared with other boats" of the same size and design -- around $150,000 new.
After K&C folded, Kaufmann continued designing boats for Cooper Yachts, said Nolte.
He may have had limited formal training as a naval architect despite his apprenticeship at Sangster Craft, but he had a natural creativity which was also evident in his photography, said son Thomas Kaufmann of Edmonton.
"He was a very creative thinker," he said. "He was always looking at a design and asking how can we improve things."
Daughter Heidi Johnson remembered her father as a big joker, who liked to light firecrackers in the house, and made friends even on a trip to the corner store.
Family holidays were usually spent outdoors, fishing and on boat camping trips.
Nolte remembered her brother's fondness for the home-grown fruit, vegetables, meat and fish they grew up on. He continued to grow produce and made his own preserves in Canada. "My brother never liked anything artificial," she said.
Kaufmann baked his own heavy German rye bread because of what bakeries in their adopted homeland offered. "We don't eat white bread," said Nolte. "My father used to say, look, you put water on it and it's that small." Her brother also "loved going to church and singing in the choir," she added.
Kaufmann, a lifelong smoker, survived lung cancer but later suffered a stroke. He died in hospital on March 3 after developing pneumonia.
He leaves his wife, Beate, six children and nine grandchildren.
The Spirit of Nanaimo, since decommissioned and replaced by the Spirit of Nanaimo II, is still used for land displays and a picture of it in earlier days is featured at the Nanaimo Museum, said Bill McGuire, Commodore of the Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society.
"The first big tub is certainly part of the history of bathtub races and the city of Nanaimo," he said.
slazaruk@theprovince.com

© The Vancouver Province 2009
​
 
Thanks for that Scott,
Peters daughter Heidi and I are very good friends, I shall pass this onto her,
here Hubby bought her a 17' K&C they are going to be restoring in memory of her father
 
LeroyB

I have a 20' K&C deep V hull and it is a wonderful boat. I've put in over 30k into it over the last 10 years and as with all things "boat" I have another 2-3k to invest before it is complete....lol
20' K&C hull.jpg
 
Anyone still checking in on this topic? It's been a while I see but I just bought an 18' Thermoglass. Can't find the year or info on the boat but the sterndrive is a 97 Mercruiser 3.0LX. I'm trying trying to find a manual for the boat but can't locate one. Does anyone know where to find one?? In need of a little info if anyone knows the boat. Thanks.
 
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