Grampian Marine Limited was a Canadian-based builder of cruising fiberglass monohull sailboats. It was founded in 1959 and was the first fiberglass boat builder in Canada.

History

Grampian was started by Jim Bisiker in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Bisiker was in the construction business which was slowing at the time. On the suggestion of one of his employees, a sailor, he looked into producing fiberglass boats, which was then a new technology.

Bisiker sent several employees to Dyer Boats in Warren, Rhode Island

Warren, Rhode Island

Warren is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 10,611 at the 2010 census.-History:Warren was the site of the Indian village of Sowams on the peninsula called Pokanoket , and was first explored by Europeans in 1621, by Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins...

 to learn fiberglass production methods. He also obtained rights to produce a powerboat, the Dyer Dink, for the Canadian market.

The name Grampian came from the Grampian

Grampian

Grampian was a local government region of Scotland from 1975 to 1996. It is now divided into the unitary council areas of:*Moray*Aberdeenshire*City of AberdeenThe region had five districts:*Aberdeen*Banff and Buchan...

 hills in Scotland, home to Bisiker's grandmother.

Grampian at one point was the largest fiberglass boatbuilder in Canada. As much of the production was sold in the United States, Grampian opened a plant in Edenton, North Carolina in the early 1970s.

As the fiberglass boatbuilding boom of the early to mid 1970s ended, Grampian was faced with a shrinking market and an extremely unfavorable exchange rate. The company went into receivership in the summer of 1977 and its assets were sold.

Boat Production

Grampian production from the start until the later 1960s was of boats produced under license for sale in the Canadian market, and boats produced to be marketed by other firms. Triangle Marine of Rochester, New York, had Grampian build their 20, 27 and 32 foot models. U.S. Yachts of Norwalk, Connecticut, marketed models called the Eagle 27 and U.S. 41 built by Grampian in addition to the Triangle 20 and 32. The Walton 37 was built for George B. Walton Inc. of Annapolis, Maryland. Other than the Triangle 20, each of these boats was of the full keel design that was prevalent at the time.

By the late 1960s full keel boats were falling out of favor for fin keel designs as a result of the success of William Lapworth's revolutionary Cal-40

Cal Yachts

Cal Yachts was a manufacturer of performance oriented fiberglass sailboats from the 1960s to the 1980s. The Costa Mesa, California, headquartered company was founded in 1957, among the earliest of all-fiberglass, mass-production sailboat builders...

design. In addition, U.S. Yachts was absorbed by the O'Day Corporation in 1967 and the models they had marketed were dropped. Grampian turned to an independent designer, Alex McGruer, to design a roomy, economical 26 foot cruising sailboat. That design turned out to be the Grampian 26, called the G26 and introduced in 1968. Ultimately, almost 1000 G26s were produced. In addition to these boats, Grampian also produced the 15' Albacore which enjoys a loyal group of followers.

Other boats produced by Grampian were:

Model	Year Introduced	Approximate Production
G30	1969	400
G23	1972	300
G34 (center cockpit ketch)	1973	50
G2-34 (aft cockpit sloop)	1974	50
G28	1975	107
Discovery 7.9	1976	?