Cruisers Yachts

The company was one of the first boat builders to utilize the Volvo Penta IPS propulsion system.

They were second-generation members of the Thompson family, involved in boat building at Peshtigo, WI and Cortland, New York.

Roy and Grant were following in their father Chris's footsteps, as he had co-founded the Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg.

The company was producing 60 boats per week then, and the work force had grown from 20 to 101, over 5 times its size, in three years.

[citation needed] A reorganization of the three Thompson family owned boat plants at Peshtigo, Cortland, NY and Oconto went into effect on 1 January 1959.

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.

[1] In 1982, Cruisers acquired the fiberglass portion of the boat division of Mirro Aluminum Company.