Belmont Boats

Belmont Boat History: The building exists today in Fresno, California. They were founded back in the early fifties and it was a father-son business for years. They made two or three luxury runabouts a year starting in 1954-56 until 1966 then converted to all fiberglass flat bottom jet boats until 1985. New information from someone that talked directly to Smitty confirms that he built his first boat in 1951 then was drafted into the Korean War. Smitty finished that boat when he returned from the war and sold a pretty crude version that had no neutral drive just forward and reverse using mostly junkyard automotive parts.

What is unique is that they were one of the first companies to fiberglass their boats below the waterline over the marine plywood. They would hold 8 passengers and would roar across the lakes and seas at 60 plus miles per hour. 

The old shop which was called Belmont Marine is still in Fresno, CA and was bought from the son, Lynn Weeks. Founder Smitty Weeks passed away years ago at the age of 93.

According to a former employee, Brent Rim at Belmont Boats, "We were mostly building jet boats. Smitty had designed a custom v-bottom hull using the 19' flat-bottom as a template. He actually got it patented. It was the fastest stock boat using the Berkeley 455 Olds Pack-a-Jet power unit. He also retrofitted the design into a 21' luxury day cruiser. While I was there, a guy named Simon did all the fiberglass work out back, and I did the hardware installations along with a guy named Bob. Lynn would stop by periodically. The most awesome part of that job was listening to the many stories Smitty told us based on his years of custom boat building and racing. There were many photos around the shop of his old wood boats, including one that resembled a shark and many custom wood inboards that he built for clients at Lake Tahoe. The most famous Belmont might be the Purple People Eater which was the first drag boat to run over 100 mph in the quarter mile and reached a top speed of 115 mph with Allison power at Fremont California in 1961. Smitty would tow his race boats behind a Cadillac hearse which he probably picked up across the street at the local cemetery filled with tools.

"Son, Lynn, had an accident, and it wasn't a test drive. He was just out having fun one evening, when a friend of a friend asked for a ride, which ended in tragedy. He had never met the man previously. The best guess was that he was traveling at top speed when the boat hit something floating on the water, rupturing the front part of the hull. The water rushing in blew the deck off. The boat went down in the channel between the main body of Millerton Lake and the Sky Harbor beach, in about 200' of water. Smitty was a very proud man, who I respected deeply. My understanding was that there were significant legal battles involving insurance companies and the family of the deceased. Not sure how it financially turned out, but I know it had a major emotional impact on Smitty and Lynn. As noted, they never built another flat-bottom. But I believe that decision had already been made before the accident, as they were manufacturing solely Jet boats at that time in the late 1970's".  cite source