Overview
First founded as Adams & Reinell, Inc., in Marysville, Washington, USA. The company specialized in lapstrake and carvel-planked boats in the 10- to 18-foot range, but they advertised their ability to design and build pleasure cruisers or yachts up to 110 feet. By the early 1930’s the company was known as Reinell Boat Works. The plant was expanded several times and new models were added to the line, making Reinell a well known and successful west coast US builder of outboard runabouts, at least into the 1960’s, when fiberglass construction was introduced. After an initial resistance to the new technology, the company began building small fiberglass runabouts in 1957, which were not well received. In the mid-1970’s Reinell entered into a short lived venture of building sailboats. The arrangement the company had with designer Arthur S. Henry is unknown but the boats offered under the Reinell name must have come from the same hull molds as those sold under the ‘American’ brand from American Mariner Industries (AMI). After a number of changes in ownership and management, the company closed it’s doors in 1980. Most of companies assetts were purchased by Beechcraft Marine, which in turn went under a few years later. See American Mariner Industries. A Reinell Boat Co. exists (2014) as a builder of powerboats. Other than the name, it has no connection to the earlier firm.
