Cruisers Yachts - "Exceed Your Expectations"

In 1904, Peter and his brothers - Ed, Chris, Ted and Tom - founded the Thompson Bros. Boat Manufacturing Co. in Peshtigo. The next generation of Thompson boys also went into the business as they reached adulthood. In 1934, Chris's sons Roy and Grant began the Thompson Boat Mart at Woodruff, in the heart of northern Wisconsin's thriving vacation district. With the full support of father Chris, the brothers' venture became a successful seasonal business, moving to Minocqua in 1937. They sold and serviced Thompson boats and outboard motors, along with fuel for both boats and automobiles.

Roy and Grant continued to be involved with Thompson Boat. In 1953, the brothers sold the Thompson Boat Mart and devoted their full attention to the Peshtigo operation.

In the early 1950s, Evinrude and Johnson Motors encouraged the second-generation Thompsons to build outboard cabin cruisers larger than the boats currently produced by Thompson Boat. Roy, Grant, Ray and Glenn Thompson approached their fathers and uncles with the idea; the elder group approved and offered assistance in the new endeavor.

In the summer of 1953, Thompson laborers in Peshtigo went on strike. The younger Thompsons seized the opportunity and launched Cruisers Inc., with the 6,000-square-foot former Holt Lumber planing mill in Oconto as the fledgling boatbuilder's new home.

Dedication to Quality
When manufacturing began, the Cruisers workers took great pains to ensure that the boats were made to a very high quality. If a mistake occurred, they would guarantee not only that it was corrected, but that it would not occur in the next boat. Every worker realized that he or she had to do their utmost to keep Cruisers competitive against entrenched builders.

In the first year of operation, Cruisers made 14- and 16-foot lapstrake boats, sold to the Thompson Bros. Boat Manufacturing Co. with the Thompson name badge on the hulls. The first shipment left Oconto on November 18, 1953. The first official cabin-cruiser model was a 19-foot, 3-inch lapstrake boat, which was introduced to the public at the 1954 New York Boat Show; she featured a sink, alcohol stove, water closet, cushioned bunks to sleep four, cabin lights and a collapsible table.

The first known Cruisers Inc. catalog debuted in 1956; at this time, the company was producing 60 boats per week, and the work force had grown from 20 to 101 in just three years. By 1961, 300 people worked at the Oconto facility during peak season. They were the world's foremost manufacturer of wooden lapstrake/clinker boats, producing 12 models from 14 to 20 feet in length.

In January 1959, brothers Roy and Grant Thompson gained complete control of Cruisers, Inc. In 1959 and 1960, they made 3,000 boats annually. Then the bottom fell out of the wooden-boat market.

As fiberglass boats hit the scene, customers abandoned wooden vessels en masse. Cruisers resisted the change, with the Thompsons believing firmly that a well-built wooden boat would outperform and outlive any fiberglass version of itself. Cruisers sold less than 800 boats in the 1965 season, and wooden boats were eliminated from the line by the end of 1966.

The Launch of Cruisers Yachts
Through the years, Cruisers experienced the ebb and flow of the marine industry, and it survived due to both the tenaciousness of its people and the superb quality of its product. This survival, however, was not guaranteed when boat sales crashed in the early 1990s. Enter lumber-industry magnate and venture capitalist K.C. Stock.

Stock was born and raised in the Oconto area. As an experienced businessman, he saw the potential for opportunity even in those bleak times and, as a native son, he knew the devastation that would afflict Oconto should the town's No. 1 employer close its doors.

So, in 1993, Stock's KCS International Inc. purchased the company it renamed Cruisers Yachts and, in the process, launched an upswing that would take the marine industry and pleasure-boating public by storm. Today, just nine years later, Cruisers Yachts produces 15 models from 28 to 54 feet in its expanded Oconto facility and in a new boatbuilding operation in Wilmington, North Carolina. This summer, the company launched three truly innovative new models: the "crossover" 405 Express Motoryacht and two next-generation-express sisterships, the 400 Express and the 440 Express. Cushioned bunks have given way to queen-size beds in large private staterooms; "water closets" now feature full-size showers and, in the case of one model, a bathtub behind French doors. Wet bars, DVD players, flat-screen TVs, washer/dryer units and coffee makers also are regular fare.

Evidently, the Thompson brothers' commitment to finely crafted, high-quality yachts is alive and well. The unique culture they created in Wisconsin is continued today by more than 700 employees in the two Oconto plants and in the coastal North Carolina facility, and the country's foremost manufacturer of lapstrake/clinker boats in the 20th century has become one of the world's premier providers of midsize to luxury pleasure yachts for the 21st.