Why the name Ericson?

[Captain C]

I'm coming up to my one year ownership of a 1985 32-3. I've been thinking of changing the name of the boat and thought about a name with a Nordic flair to it. That got me thinking about the origins of the name Ericson and the classic viking helmet.

Does anyone know why? Was it just a marketing gimic or are there actual ties to Nordic roots?

My research, including on this website, comes up with Handy and Jenkins starting the company in 1963 and declaring bankruptcy a few years later. Then the company transfered to a few different owners over the next several decades...And that's pretty much it. I can't find any other informantion relating to the origins of Ericson except Handy's first name was Raymond!

My guess is just a marketing gimic, but curious if there's more to it.

If there is more...I know I will find it here!

Thanks
Dave

 

[Martin King]

Ray Handy named the company. During the very earliest days, one of the guys was assigned the task of coming up with a name but
his suggestions were so bad that Ray made the call. This was the story as I heard it. When it comes to seafaring lore and mystique,
who's cooler than the Vikings? I guess you could call it marketing although I don't think any of these characters involved were that prescient
of what the future held. After all, Ericson was started under very dubious beginnings- bribing a dump operator to hand over some hull molds he was
supposed to destroy, and then hiring my dad to rework the deck for the first ever Ericson.
The helmet logo and other graphics came later and can be attributed to Ed Greer who ran a small advertising
agency and had the Ericson account.

This reminds me of a conversation I recently had with my dad about how the times back then were so very different. Much more freewheeling
than today, Costa Mesa was the epicenter of the fiberglass boat explosion and it seemed their was a builder on almost every corner. Boat building
companies and suppliers were bought and sold, came and went at a dizzying pace. Deals could be done on a handshake alone. For example, he told me about
how Hawkeye (the custom 48 foot bilgeboarder) came to be. Hawkeye was designed for Dave Cuckler, a gentlemen from Iowa I believe, who
was on the racing scene in the early seventies. Dave was a great guy and talked all the time about doing the boat which my dad had designed
for him, but would just never pull the trigger on building it. Well unbeknownst to Dave, the plans were sent down to Jerry Driscoll's yard in San Diego and they just
started building it. My dad was at a Tinsley Island stag cruise and Dave was there and got wind that his boat was being built in San Diego.
The two of them left the cruise early, climbed into Dave's twin engine plane and he flew from Tinsley Island direct to San Diego. Sure enough, she had already
been lofted and framed up. Dave was thrilled and was about to become the owner of one of the baddest IOR boats of her time. No contract,
just a handshake.

 

[fool]

Is it just me or does the Ericson logo look like someone sitting in zazen meditation followed by a hull wake?

Oh, just me?

Anybody seen my glasses? I put them down somewhere and can't see them.

My face? Oh there they are...

 

[Captain C]

Thank you Mr. King for the response. I knew I would find valuable and even conections to primary sources here!

And re-reading my initial thread I regret using the word "marketing gimmick" (which I initially spelled wrong)...this implies trickery and deception, which is not the intent of a company name, but rather, I assume, a connection to a legendary sailing heritage.

Now the hard part...to come up with a name!

 

[Teranodon]

This is neither here nor there, but my wife and I just bought a house on San Juan Island. It's on Erickson Drive! Nothing I can do about that "k", alas.

 

[TimTimmeh]

Is it just me or does the Ericson logo look like someone sitting in zazen meditation followed by a hull wake?

Oh, just me?

.

It was just you, until you planted the seed..

Personally I can't look at the US Democratic party logo without seeing a cheeky bugger giving a rude hand gesture under the donkey's legs.

 

[907Juice]

Lol, wait until you get an ericson with a hull number 666. You get all kinds of looks. No idea of the origin, but I loved the Viking, or in my case devil horns. I thought about changing the name to devil at one point...

 

[toddster]

Well... at first, I thought you all were just Idaho or Minnesota fans.
Hmm... “Vandal” might be a good name for a racing boat.