Endeavour

The Endeavour Yacht Corporation was an American boat builder based in Largo, Florida. Founded in 1974 by John Brooks and Rob Valdes, the company specialized in the design and manufacture of fiberglass sailboats. The company went out of business in 1986.

When Brooks and Valdes founded Endeavour Yacht Corp Ted Irwin of Irwin Yachts gave them the molds for the 1970 Irwin 32 in exchange for a small number of shares. The molds were modified by Dennis Robbins, who was responsible for Endeavour's production and design work. The reworked design was called the Endeavour 32 and about 600 examples were produced, starting in 1975, giving the company an early market success.

Starting in 1980 the emphasis shifted to improving sailing performance along with new construction materials and techniques. The 1981 Endeavour 40 was designed for the owner cruising market but also with an eye to establishing sales in the yacht charter market. This drove designs that were faster and also more comfortable.

America's Cup designer Johan Valentijn designed the Endeavour 38 in 1984 and Bruce Kelly drew the Endeavour 33 and 35 designs that same year. Construction moved to Klegecell, a closed-cell type of polyvinyl foam core, with multi-axial steel reinforced grids to improve hull stiffness. Valentijn went on to design the Endeavour 42 and 51 and by 1985 the company was producing center-cockpit boats for cruising and charter use. Construction was changed using end-grain balsa wood in the hulls above the waterline areas and plywood for more stressed parts of the boats, with polyurethane foam and triaxial fiberglass.

By 1984 the company had 300 employees and was building 200 boats per year. Due to the effects of the early 1980s recession Brooks closed the company and it entered bankruptcy. It was sold to the Denver-based Coastal Financial Corporation, headed by Troy Rollins. Brooks became the sales manager and Doug Franzese, who had been Production Manager at Gulfstar, became the company General Manager. Coastal Financial reopened production, but by 1988 were operating with only 105 employees and producing 50 boats per year, due to declining sales and competition with the used boat market.

Source:Wikipedia