Commanding the waterways

by Bob Wonders on 18 Nov 2008 Regular Powerboat-World readers may have read a piece I did just a few weeks ago on US boating industry legend C.N. ‘Connie’ Ray, founder of Sea Ray.

I mentioned in that article that best-selling and prolific US author Jeffrey L. Rodengen had published a book, ‘Commanding the Waterways, the story of Sea Ray.’

Thanks to the author a copy of the book has come into my hands and let me say this; if you own a Sea Ray, if you once owned a Sea Ray or if one day you might own a Sea Ray, this book is an absolute must have.

In fact, it’s a must have for anyone with an appreciation of the modern day, recreational boating industry, of its formation and its development.

The hard-cover, 192-page, 10-chapter publication includes a forward from C.N. Ray himself, now 83-years-old and enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

Rodengen and his team are absolutely meticulous when it comes to research, and here you’ll discover detailed information, facts and figures that have eventually led to the boating industry many of us are familiar with today.

The book explains how ‘Connie’ Ray, through his father, became involved in sand and gravel mining.

He was later to exclaim ‘there’s no romance in sand and gravel.’

It was 1959 that Ray purchased the assets of a little-known company called Carr-Craft, a fibreglass boat builder operating from a garage in suburban Detroit, Michigan.

Carr-Craft became the foundation stone of Sea Ray.

With accurate research and profusely illustrated chapters, Jeffrey Rodengen takes readers from the amateurish (by today’s standards) boat shows of 1960, through to the eventual purchase by the Brunswick Corporation of what had become an industry giant.

I was particularly interested to read of the development of the stern drive involving two men I have had the privilege of meeting, Charles D. ‘Charlie’ Strang and Jim Wynne.

There’s an illustration on page 31 of this tremendous publication that deserves its place in boating history; it shows what appears to be almost ‘a scribble’ in Charles Strang’s 1948 diary while he was at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The pencil drawing and notations depicted the first of what we know now as the stern drive engine.

A ‘picture’ of ‘Connie’ Ray, a man who made such a major contribution to recreational boating, can be gleaned from many of the comments made about him by former associates and work colleagues.

Jim Steffens, a senior manufacturing executive with Sea Ray, said of Ray, 'We were taught that from the time you came in, you either did it right or you didn’t do it.'

Jerry Michalak, a fibreglass specialist and designer who worked with Ray, said 'One of the things I remember Connie Ray saying in the early days was, ‘if it has my name on it, it has to be the best’.

I cannot commend this publication too highly.

Jeffrey Rodengen is no newcomer to recording boating industry history; in fact he has published enough to be regarded as the supreme chronicler of recreational boating.

Past publications from this prolific author include ‘The Legend of Chris-Craft’, ‘Iron Fist, The Lives of Carl Kiekhaefer’, ‘Evinrude-Johnson, the Legend of OMC’, ‘The Legend of Mercury Marine’ and ‘The Legend of Bertram’.

I’ve been fortunate enough to read ‘The Legend of Chris-Craft’ and ‘Evinrude-Johnson, the Legend of OMC’.

I am currently reading ‘Iron Fist, the Lives of Carl Kiekhaefer’ (founder of Mercury Marine), and to date it’s as informative and enjoyable as the Sea Ray story.

We’ll bring you a review of ‘Iron Fist’ when I finally get through it.

To obtain a copy of ‘Commanding the Waterways, The story of Sea Ray’, contact Ms Donna Sturt, Mercury Marine, Melbourne, telephone (03) 9791-5822.