Design Influence for Southwest Boat Corporation Sou'wester Cruiser

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Design Influence for Southwest Boat Corporation Sou'wester Cruiser

""Just as it had been Edsel's [Edsel Ford] idea to buy Lincoln to give the company an elegant car to match GM's Cadillac, so in the midthirties, as Ford's competitive position continued to slip, he tried to get a part of the middle-priced market through the Zephyr. The Zephyr began as the Briggs Manufacturing Company ""dream car."" which Edsel saw in prototype at the 1933 automobile show. He was excited by it, having wanted for some time a car in price and quality between the Ford and the Lincoln. He bought the rights from Briggs and then brought in Eugene T. Gregorie, a former boat designer, to carry out his vision of a sleek auto for the middle-class buyer."" - “The Fords: An American Epic” by Peter Collier and David Horowitz, p. 158-159 - illustration #40 - 1987

Apparently design direction worked both ways. ""The design (above the water line) of speed boats of the 30's, 40's and 50's was influenced by automobile design of that era."" - Interview with Charles Morrill - 10/20/08
Morrill - Charles Barrett Morrill (1934-)

""Bink was obsessed with Lincoln Zephyr cars. He stove up three within two weeks. They all had this streamlined look."" - Interview with Ralph Stanley October 20, 2008
A photograph of the Lincoln Zephyr that is supremely evocative of the design era that influenced Bink Sargent appears in “Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company,” curated by Pierre Apraxine, with plates by Richard Benson, and notes to the plates by Lee Marks. 480 pp. 199 plates and a frontispiece. Large folio (16 by 18.25 inches), bound in original half maroon calf over linen covered boards, in a slipcase. [Verona: Stamperia Valdonega for] The White Oak Press, 1985. Limited edition of 1200. Copy Number 466 in the collection of the Southwest Harbor Public Library.

See: Plate 188, Lincoln Zephyr 1936 by Grancel Fitz (1894–1963)

The original photograph, ""Lincoln Zephyr with Graf Zeppelin,"" is in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987.

The Ford Motor Company

Detroit MI

MI

USA

1937