Davidson Ski Company; More Information Needed

When I went digging into this North American International 14 history, I thought that only Douglass and McLeod built the hot-molded Uffa Alarm hull. I did have a couple of measurement certificates from the Seattle fleet that listed "Davidson" as a builder of the "One-Design" (Alarm shapes), but I assumed that this was probably a boat builder that was finishing off molded hulls supplied by Douglass and McLeod.

It appears that I have been wrong, as there was a Davidson Ski Company that morphed into the Davidson Manufacturing Company in Vancouver, British Columbia, and it appears they were hot-molding canoes, small sailboats and also, from my records, their own version of the Alarm International 14.

I haven't a confirmation of this, but everything points to this. I came across Phillip Merchant who posted this history on a wooden canoe forum:

"I have been doing some research on the Davidson company(s) and this is the first that I have heard of them building canoes. It does not surprise me however, as they seemed to have had many interests over the years. What I have so far is that Hamish Davidson was a cabinet maker and early on developed an interest in building skis. He built wooden skis (and I'm sure many other things) through the late 1920's and into the 1940's. There is a pair of wooden skis in a museum in Quebec circa 1940 built by him. There is also a reference to him building some of the first fiberglass skis. 

In the 1940's Davidson and Charles Hourston worked for Boeing together building the Mosquito bombers. In 1948 Davidson (with Charles Hourston) started building small boats of wood and later fiberglass. There seems to be several different companies under variations of the name Davidson."

Davidson had experience with the hot-molded wood manufacturing in building the Mosquito bombers, there exists hot molded 12 foot and 17 foot Davidson daysailors, and I have measurement certificates for Davidson built US One-Design (Alarm) International 14's - the only proper conclusion is that we have another builder of the US One-Design hot-molded hulls.

Internet research and inquiries on Davidson Manufacturing have not yielded anything in response. Hence, if you are reading this and have more information, leave a comment or track down my email address in my "About Me" section.