The Daily Feather — Jumping the Narrow Wake

Over this long holiday weekend, you may have spent on the water, we’ve got one question: “Got wake?” In 1963, Rob Shirley was irked that there was too much of it. Hired by Leo Bentz to run his water ski school, Shirley was intrigued by the school’s breakthrough – the first fiberglass-hulled, inboard-motor speedboat designed to reduce wake. After Wentz sold the design to a boatbuilder, Shirley continued to use the prototype at his own Florida-based waterski school opened in 1965. In pressing forward with his own design three years later, an accident ended with his boat’s engine blowing up. Settling the lawsuit that followed forced Shirley to close his school and relocate to his wife’s family farm in Maryville, Tennessee. There, in a two-stall horse barn, he began to build fiberglass ski boats under the name MasterCraft Boat Company. In August 1968, the boat debuted at the U.S. Nationals in Canton, Ohio. Waterskiing enthusiasts were instantly hooked. The smallest wake in the industry pulled skiers quickly out of the water. The ease of the ride allowed slalom speeds of 30-36 miles per hour and was ideally suited to performing tricks by jumping the wake.

Still based in Monroe County, Tennessee, a few weeks ago, MasterCraft informed its workers that production would be halved to 10 from 20 boats a day.