Rinker Boats – From the 1930s to Today

Rinker

The Rinker brand firmly established itself as a byword for fast boats – whether in racing or as cruisers. Over the decades, Rinker was considered one of the defining “influencers” of the powerboat scene.

The powerboats from the Rinker yard have stood for typical American watersports since the 1930s. The yard and its boats developed in parallel with the "rise" of motorized watersports in the US, where waterskiing and (almost) all the sports that followed, such as wakeboarding, were invented. A country where epic trips on long rivers and huge freshwater lakes are part of the lifestyle and where powerboat racing has thrilled people from the very beginning. Over the decades, Rinker was regarded as one of the leading "influencers" of the powerboat scene – and soon worldwide, too.

From fishing boat to race boat

The beginnings of the Rinker yard were "once again" tied to making a dream come true. Farmer Lossie Rinker, based in the Midwest, finally wanted to do something other than till the soil: he built small fishing boats that ran on the White River. Shortly afterwards, a certain extravagance was added: Rinker also built race boats, which quickly and successfully gave the (still) small yard a flourishing image.

Rinker's sons soon joined their father and founded Rinkerbuilt in Syracuse, Indiana, where the yard is still active today. The first Rinker racing brand, Famous Craft, was born in 1945. And in 1958, long before many competitors, Rinkerbuilt began building fiberglass boats with gelcoat hull finishes.

A byword for fast boats

At the end of the 1960s, the yard also sold its boats on the European market; by 1970, Rinker race boats had already grown to 20 feet in length. At the same time, the first runabouts and semi-displacement boats with a deep V-hull in the forward section were offered. The Rinker brand firmly established itself as a byword for fast boats – whether in the racing sector or as cruisers. In the 1970s, Rinker was one of the first yards to respond to the new trend of offering outboard or inboard engines on selected boat models. The company also played a leading role in developing trimaran powerboats for racing.

Significantly increased production

The 1980s were a time of change and rebranding. The company name was changed, a new cruiser line called Fiesta Vee was launched, and Captiva speedboats were added later.
In 2004, Rinker Boat Co. was sold to an investment group led by former managing director Kim Slocum.

The new owners significantly increased the yard's production to around 3,500 to 4,000 boats per year. Around 600 people currently work for Rinker. Rinker's range includes more than 20 models between 5.70 and 14.40 meters in length.