Henry R. McCune, Shipbuilders

In the early 1960s, actor Henry ‘Hank’ McCune of television’s The Hank McCune Show (the first show to ever use a laugh track) left show business and became one of the earliest builder of fiberglass boats in the US. His yard was originally located in the Long Beach CA area. The best known models are VICTORY 21 and the ALL-AMERICAN 28 (designed by McCune). This latter boat, introduced in 1962, was an offshore racer that featured a fin keel and spade rudder. In the 60’s McCune started building a series of cruising sailboats to his own design known as Olympians, the largest of which was 35 feet. Few of these seem to be still around. From a later, revamped lineup came the Yorktowns, many of which are still sailing. (Another boat called the TALISMAN may well have come from a Yorktown mold. Many of the Yorktowns were sold in varying states of construction to be completed by the customer. There used to be a Yorktown website with quite a bit of historical information which, unfortunately, is now gone.