I recently acquired an Omega jet drive, 454 C.I., Panther jet drive. I have searched the internet for the manufacturer with no success. Any info would be appreciated.
yes, I used to have one. It was a 21 1/2' open bow. They were manufactured in L.A. back in the day. The company was started up again a few years ago, but has gone tits up again already.
Is yours open bow? They made both, but the boat with a deck I believe was shorter.
Ken F
chappies1,
Omega was, and as far as I know, are still are in Montclair. But I think I remember reading they're working under a different name than the old Omega. I'll be damned if I can remember the guys name that owned it right now. I think they were shut down for a few years and then fired back up.
They built tons of boats and many, many different models. Probably the most popular being the 21 LP open bow. That was the first open bow boat on the market, 'cept for tri-hulls, back then. Very popular and splashed by several builders. Still being built well into the late 90's by some of them.
At Hawaiian, and I've told the story a few times here, Schuster sent someone to buy a new Omega 21 open bow. They brought it back to the shop and installed new interior, Hawaiian emblems and not much more and entered it in the LA boat show. I believe Omega was debuting it too at the same show. The Hawaiian salesmen were taking orders like crazy for the thing and we didn't even have a set of molds yet, lol.
My dad had one for 20 years and loved it, a Hawaiian version I mean.
Omega Boats used to be in Montclair on Holt Blvd just east of Central Ave years ago, but moved a couple of times since. Last location I've seen, they were off 215 fwy, north of the 91(Norco?) in some hole in the wall shop. Boats were being layup in the high desert, rigged in the shop. They did boat service as well. The owner's name was Forrest. They use to place ads in the Boat Trader.
I love those stories Old Rigger! Always amazes me to hear how cut throat the biz was back in the day. Pretty easy to see why hardly anyone survived.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote