Universal Marine

Universal Marine was an American boat builder based in Saint Petersburg, Florida. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of fiberglass sailboats.[1][2][3]

Universal Marine Corporation
TypePrivately held company
IndustryBoat building
Founded1960
FounderJohannes "Jopie" Helsen
Headquarters
Saint Petersburg, Florida
,
United States
ProductsSailboats

The company was founded by Johannes "Jopie" Helsen in 1960 as the Helsen Yacht Corporation.[1][3][4]

History

The company was founded as a marina management business and later expanded into boat design and building as a side-business. The first design produced was the Helsen 22 in 1971, followed in 1974 by the Helsen 20. The swing keel Montego 19 and its fixed keel derivative, the Montego 20 were produced first in 1976.[1][2][5][6]

The final and largest boat built, the Montego 25, started production in 1980 and was produced until 1985, with 80 boats completed. In a 2010 review, Steve Henkel wrote about Helsen's Montego 25 design, "this one may have been his best effort ... properly sailed will give good performance on the race course ... We used to race against a Montego 25 in our Morgan 24/25 ... and although we won the season trophy once or twice based on the average of our scores, we were never able to beat the Montego, either boat for boat or on corrected time. She is fast, we observed, both light and heavy air ...."[1][2][7]

Boat production ended in 1985 and the company is now listed as "inactive".[1][3]

Boats

Summary of boats built by Universal Marine:[1]

See also

References
  1. McArthur, Bruce (2021). "Universal Marine Corp. (USA)". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  2. Henkel, Steve: The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats, pages 45, 110 and 357. International Marine/McGraw-Hill, 2010. ISBN 978-0-07-163652-0
  3. Florida Department Of State Business Registration (3 February 2021). "Universal Marine Corp". bizapedia.com. Archived from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  4. McArthur, Bruce (2021). "Johannes "Jopie" Helsen". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  5. McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Montego 19 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  6. McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Montego 20 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  7. McArthur, Bruce (2020). "Montego 25 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Archived from the original on 13 August 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
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