Overview
Grampian Marine was one of the first manufacturers fiberglass sailboats in Canada. It was founded by Jim Bisiker, owner of a construction company at Oakville, Ontario. Bisiker, along with Dick Kneulman and John Burn began building small fiberglass boats under license from Dyer Yachts of Rhode Island, USA. At the time, Dyer was at the leading edge for this technology and all three men had spent time at the Dyer plant learning as much as they could. The first Grampian plant was built on land owned by Bisikers company. Soon enough this attracted a group from the US wanting Grampian to build boats for them. There was Charles Angel from Rochester, NY, who had designed the TRIANGLE 20 and TRIANGLE 32, and later the US 42 which later became the 46. Marketing was done by US Yachts, whose principals included Bob Larsen and Warren Dellenbaugh. Larsen and Dellenbaugh were also among the founders of O’Day Yachts. As a result, Grampian began building not only the US Yachts line, but also (for the Canadian market only) the O’Day line of day sailors. Grampian also participated in the development of O’Day’s new Hunt designed offshore powerboats though they chose not be involved in the actual production. During the late 1960’s, Grampian continued to build boats for O’Day though declined an offer to be bought out by them. (O’Day did purchase US Yachts and Triangle Marine before going public on the New York Stock Exchange.) Grampian also built the ALBACORE, SNIPES and FLYING TERNS and 420’s (The Canadian government placed an order for fifty) in addition to the CLASSIC 22 and the G 17, a cuddy cabin dinghy. In response to the urging of George Walton Yachts of Annapolis, Md., and other dealers in the US, Grampian began building it’s own line of ailing yachts which included the CLASSIC 31 designed by Peter van Dyne, and the S&S designed CLASSIC 37. Subsequently Grampian took on its own in-house designer Alex McGruer. He began with the GRAMPIAN 26 followed by the GRAMPIAN 30 and later the GRAMPIAN 23. Due to it’s expanding US market, a plant was opened in North Carolina USA and the company became less reliant on it’s original Oakville facility. When the company closed in 1977, the assets were sold to a number of different buyers. (The molds for the HERITAGE 35 had been purchased just before.) The North Carolina plant was taken over by Tanzer Industries.
