It’s almost spring and if you are not yet a boat owner it’s the perfect time to book a spring delivery for a Whitehall Spirit model of your choice. These are boats that improve your health, burn calories not hydrocarbons for fuel and will still be just as useful and beautiful fifty years from now. Call Marie, Yvonne, Mike or Harold who can answer any question and assist you with placing your order.

Seattle Boat show attendees welcomed us with open arms from Jan 25 to Feb 3 at our display in the Qwest Exhibit Center downtown. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed checking out our classic rowing and sailing boats. Wilf Lewis, Whitehall’s intrepid truck driver, manned the booth for the entire show. Production manager Colin Rolls, and owners Marie Hutchinson and Harold Aune were there for the much of the show also. Our special thanks go to Bob and Marcia Dunshee for their time helping out with all the curious people on the busiest day.

In the ten years since we last did a major show we have noticed some changes. This year there was not as much interest in the “plastic fantastic speedsters” and a lot more interest in our classic rowing and sailing boats, particularly in slide seat rowing for fitness. At least one person in three who stopped by our display knew who we were. Twenty years ago we used to feel a bit like Greenpeace at a chainsaw convention, but now everybody loves the boats. Wilf met a few people that he had already delivered boats to. Colin shared all the exciting things you can do with row & sail boats, with his extensive sailing and boating background, including sailing across the South Pacific, he has a tremendous knowledge base to draw on.

There was a lot of interest and some orders taken for the new Whitehall Spirit SOLO 14. Future SOLO owners are now spread from Maine to San Diego and are looking forward to the Whitehall delivery truck arriving with their shiny new boat in about 2 months. If you haven’t already done so you may want to visit the Solo website. It is continually being upgraded as the full production date approaches. Incidentally the SOLO 14 will be white in color, including the transparent non-skid on the deck. The images shown on our website appear grey in color with darker grey non-skid. They are actually white.

While at the Seattle Show we were introduced to a new type of electric outboard that uses a lithium-manganese battery. It’s called the Torqeedo and including the battery weighs only 25 lbs. Marie had to have one and so we ordered one to test out. None could do a better job of testing than Bob Dunshee, who had already sent us test data on his previous outboards used on their Whitehall Spirit 17. Bob has already started putting it through its paces. Next month we will feature a full report of how it worked out or if you are curious in the meantime just give us a call at the office or send an email.

In other news, we are preparing to move our production facility to a new location here in Victoria. It is quite a bit larger, and will allow us to expand our production, to meet your demand.