Overview
Founded by Jack Jensen and originally located at Costa Mesa, CA. The company first sold the centerboard LAPWORTH 24 designed by Bill Lapworth. The Lapworth’s 24 sold well. The name was first changed to CALIFORNIA 24 and then CAL 24. The name Cal stuck with the company until it closed in 1986. The 24 was a success and Jensen hired Lapworth to design several more yachts including a 27 foot pop-top racer/cruiser. (there would ultimately be 3 Cal 27’s) The CAL 40 was introduced in 1963. These yachts became one of the most celebrated production racings yachts of all time. Bangor Punta purchased Jensen Marine in 1965*. Boats were still listed as being built by Jensen Marine for a number of years after this date. Jensen Marine also built RV/Motor homes for few years at the Costa Mesa plant. The Cal Yacht factory was moved to Tampa, Florida in January of 1981. The factory remained in Tampa until March of 1985. It was then moved to Fall River, Massachusetts and was managed by Jim Hunt, son of yacht designer C. Raymond Hunt. Bangor Punta also owned O’Day Yachts and Prindle Catamarans. Later there was Siegler Marine, Starcraft Sailboat Products, and then finally just Cal Boats. If all the later takeovers are included, Cal boats continued to be built until 1989. (Eds. note: An attempt was made to list the boats as they were named by the manufacturer. For example, the second version of the CAL 30 was called the CAL 2-30. In cases where a later model used the same name as an ealier one, the boat is listed here with a unique identifier in parenthisis, such as CAL 24 (HUNT)to designate it as a separate model.)
