Whiticar produced boats ranging from 33 to 90 feet in length with all of the state-of-the-art fishing equipment, including outriggers,tuna towers, fighting chairs, teak cockpit soles, fish lockers and flybridge helms with excellent views of the cockpit.
Illustration by Jim Ewing
In 1917, Addison Whiticar moved his family to the then sleepy oceanside town of Stuart, Florida, to pursue a life in commercial fishing. The existence of a large and passable inlet, plus the knowledge that the Gulf Stream delivered desirable species to the nearby waters, created an opportunity that was too hard to ignore. Whiticar’s chance for success was boosted by Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway. In 1912, Flagler’s venture had connected Jacksonville to Key West, bringing increased trade, land development and tourism.
In the mid-1930s, one of Whiticar’s sons, Curtis, who was a charter fisherman, built a single-screw 33-footer for himself. He then built a twin-screw, 38-foot sportfisherman for his dad. His skills set the family on a course that would inextricably bind their name with sportfishing—particularly among locals, tourists and retirees bent on pursuing the abundant billfish…
