Description

TYPHOON PAINTED CLASSIC SPEED BOAT

FULLY BUILT AND READY TO DISPLAY BOAT MODEL

Dimension approx.: 39.5"L x 9.5"W x 9"H
The model is already built. THIS IS NOT A MODEL SHIP KIT

In the late 1920s, when America was intoxicated with speed and mechanical daring, Edsel Ford commissioned one of the most extraordinary private speedboats ever built. Inspired by the blistering performance of the famous Teaser runabout, Ford turned to two of the era’s greatest talents: naval architect George Crouch, whose hydroplane Cinderella had revolutionized racing design, and master builder Henry B. Nevins of City Island, New York. Their collaboration produced the Typhoon, a 40‑foot mahogany masterpiece that embodied the glamour and danger of Jazz Age powerboating.

Typhoon was unlike anything on American waterways. Beneath her varnished planking lay a 2,000‑cubic‑inch Wright “Typhoon” V‑12 aircraft engine, delivering roughly 600 horsepower — an astonishing figure for the era. Her pointed bow and stern, three‑cockpit layout, and aircraft‑style instrument panel reflected both her aviation pedigree and her uncompromising performance. She was designed not as a racer but as a personal commuter craft for Ford, intended to carry him swiftly along the Detroit River between his home and the Ford Motor Company plant.

But even Ford recognized the risks of such power. He reportedly told his doctors the boat was too dangerous, and by 1934 Typhoon was quietly offered for sale. Over the following decades she passed through the hands of Chicago‑area boaters, receiving occasional repowerings but never losing her aura as one of the most formidable runabouts ever built.

Her story took a dramatic turn during World War II. In 1941, Ford sold Typhoon to Howard Hughes, whose fascination with high‑performance machinery was legendary. Hughes kept the boat running on the Detroit River throughout the war, reportedly using clandestine aviation fuel to circumvent gasoline rationing. After the war, Typhoon moved through several owners, including racer Joseph Van Blerck Jr., before eventually being relocated to Kentucky.

The boat’s life ended tragically in the late 1960s, when a fire at Bryants Marina in Seattle destroyed her. For collectors and historians, the loss was profound: Typhoon had been one of the last surviving examples of the great custom speedboats of the 1920s, a physical link to the era when wealthy industrialists pushed the limits of marine engineering.

Yet her legacy did not disappear. In the 1970s, classic‑boat restorer Mark Mason acquired George Crouch’s original India‑ink drawings. With designer Strother MacMinn, Mason commissioned New England Boat & Motor to build a 34‑foot replica, completed in 1989. The new Typhoon became a sensation at boat shows from New York to Paris, rekindling interest in the original and inspiring countless scale models around the world.

Today, the Typhoon remains a symbol of early 20th‑century speedboat innovation — a fusion of aviation power, naval craftsmanship, and the bold spirit of the Jazz Age. Though the original is gone, her legend endures in replicas, models, and the stories of those who witnessed her thunder across the water.