A Family Affair

W.D. Schock - A Family Affair

Boat building began for W. D. "Bill" Schock at age thirteen when he built a Skimmer in the garage of his family's Hollywood home. After serving as a crew chief in WWII, Bill moved into a small beach house in Newport Beach and set up shop. He repaired the rental fleet at a local amusement park, among other odd jobs, and started building a cold-molded wooden International 14 for himself. Before he finished it, another I-14 sailor discovered the boat and talked Bill into selling it. W. D. Schock Boat Building and Repair was in business.

Bill Schock went on to become one of the most innovative boat builders in the world. He was the first boat builder to make a production fiberglass boat. It was a sailboat known as the Lehman 10. Three other fiberglass one-design boats followed - the Snowbird, Sabot, and Schock 22. Bill also introduced a number of clever designs that made sailboats much less expensive to own. He was determined to make sailboat ownership a possibility for a much wider range of buyers. Up until the advent of fiberglass, only the very rich could own a sailboat. 

Bill worked on design and production, while his wife Betty managed the office and developed the firm's marketing strategy. They thoroughly enjoyed racing and cruising the boats they built. This family orientation is a constant throughout the history of the firm. Bill and Betty's oldest son Tom and his wife Jane now own and operate the manufacturing facility. Their second son Scott and his wife Marie have taken over the retail facility in Newport Beach and have turned it into a thriving power boat dealership. Number three son Steven is a licensed marine architect and drew the lines for the company's most recent success - the Harbor 20. 

In 1958, Bill designed the Lido 14, the boat that put the company on the map. It provided a comfortable family daysailor at a time when most boats in its size range were much more athletic one-design racers. It fills that niche to this day. And it is safe to say that the Lido has taught more people to sail than any other boat in California.

In 1965 more innovations took place at Schock. The Penguin became the first production, vacuum bagged, fiberglass and Unicore sandwich boat. Yachting Magazine's October 1965 issue has a fantastic article regarding the process. Between the introduction of the Lido and the Penguin, eight new boats came out of the W. D. Schock factory. Some were at the request of class associations wishing to convert to fiberglass, others were just innovative creations a little bit ahead of their time. The boats developed during that time were the El Toro in 1959, the Metcalf, the Catalina Catamaran, the Go Boat, and the Capri 14 in 1960, the Schock 25 in 1962, and the Endeavor in 1963.

The Catalina Cat was an 18-foot catamaran built with a one-part hull and a one-part deck. With fewer fiberglass parts, the boat was unusually light. This creative design was probably the precursor to the Hobie Cat. Another innovation at the time was Bill's Go Boat. It was a flat skiff, but very much like a surfboard. It had a main and a jib but no rudder or tiller. The driver steered by trimming the sails and balancing the boat. The Go Boat was very similar to the Windsurfer, which was developed years later. Another technology brought to market during this time by Schock was the aluminum mast.

Through a mutual friend, Tom Schock was introduced to Gary Mull in 1965. Together they developed the Santana 22, an extremely popular, very durable boat that still sails and races as a one-design class on San Francisco Bay. It has recently been brought back into production with an upgraded interior and a new deck design. Gary Mull went on to design Schock's Santana 27 and 37.

By 1959 there were approximately 70 boat builders in Orange County. By the mid-70s, there were close to 100. Schock continued to build small sailboats but began to branch into larger one-designs. At age 25, Tom Schock became the company's National Sales Manager and a corporate officer. The W. D. Schock Corporation had developed a strong reputation throughout the U.S. as a pioneer in new boat designs and advanced technology. Tom had become a world class sailor by becoming class champion in almost every boat he raced, and through an America's Cup campaign in Rhode Island. Tom had also worked in every capacity of the business - teaching sailing, campaigning each new design, physically building the boats, and selling them. He was well prepared to take the reigns as "W. D." retired.

Tom is responsible for bringing the following boats to market: Capri 14, Wavelength 24 and 30, New York 36, sixteen Santanas ranging in size from 20 to 39 feet, and the Schock 23, 34, 35, 41, and 55. He also introduced an innovative Sabot design and updated both the Lido 14 and the Lehman 12. His newest boats are the Harbor 20, the quintessential day sailor, and the revolutionary canting ballast/twin foil Schock 40 designed by Matt Brown and Bill Burns of Dyna Yachts. He has produced from conception, through production, promotion, and finally racing and cruising, thirty one-design boats. He is as comfortable around the marks racing in a Sabot against, among others, his daughter Anne, as he is surfing offshore in the incredibly fast Schock 40, very often with his wife Jane sharing in the driving and tactics.  Tom and Jane remain dedicated to Bill and Betty's commitment to family-oriented one-design sailing and innovative yacht design. The commitment to the quality of the boats and to the customer's satisfaction is personal.