The company started in 1908, formed by John Hacker. Building blue prints for boats, the company actually went dormant when WW2 came about, but came back strong in the 1980s. George Badcock bought the company in 2010 and began focusing on modernizing the process and bringing things up to date. Part of that included bringing in naval architects and modern technology, standardizing woods(now using Mahogany) and products. To date, they have a production goal of around 15 boats a year, (custom built and normal) aiming to increase as they get settled into their new facility in Queensbury.
Part of the modernization is moving away from hand applying their finishes and moving to a spray application. This wasn’t possible in their old location due to the booth they had. Very little air flow, no controls for temperature. “If we wanted to move forward, this part of the process was next to change in the new building. We needed a booth built to handle our needs,” Production Manager Bill Calogero says.