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Most on this site were not lucky enough to see the first commercially built raceboats appear. It was the beginning of Outboard Performance Craft, but we didn’t know it at the time. Stock Outboard Racing classes had been around for decades prior to the 1950’s. Boats were hydros and runabouts. There were several builders and many do it yourselfers.

In 1953 the largest Outboard was 25 hp. All of the commercial family boats were wooden. Peterborough canoe company manufactured most of the boats and OMC in Peterborough had the lions share of the Outboard market in Canada.

There was a small company out east in Mahone Bay that made cold moulded Plywood hulls and sold blank hulls with no transom to the Canadian boat builders. Those companies completed the boat and added their own company sticker.

The builder of these moulded plywood hulls in Nova Scotia was Industrial shipping company Ltd.
They started a offshoot company called Paceships. Paceships built small boats mostly 11 to 13 feet in length, open style or with a center deck.
Here is an example:
http://antiqueboatamerica.com/Boat/12_F ... dian_28463

Many lakes in Ontario had regattas they included boat races. The Stock Outboard racers ran in those races. The rules were different and different types of boats raced in the same race. Classes were normally based on horsepower not boat design. The name given to the races was Wild Cat. Racers around Ontario would travel lake to lake and race.

Speedliner built utility hulls which were runabouts. They and the other runabout Stock Outboard Boats were the dominant boats in Wild Cat. Then out of the blue 2 Paceships boats appeared, an 11 footer with a 10 hp and a 12 footer with a 25 hp. They were more than competitive! Their main problem was props. No manufacturers made props suitable for these overpowered, very light boats.
Michigan propeller started making some and prop repair shops learned how to rework the props. The boats got faster and they handled the rough water conditions much better than the Stock Outboard hulls.

The moulded plywood boats were replaced by the fiberglass V hulls in the mid 1960’s and OPC was born.

I never saw feathercraft aluminum raceboats race in the regattas. I believe they were the first commercial boat builder to build a raceboat. Many of their deck ideas were later copied. We didn’t have marathon races at the lake regattas.
Feathercraft race history
https://www.feathercraft.net/fc-info/11 ... aft-racing

What was special about the Paceships hulls was the driver sat in a seat. The Stock Outboard racers were on their knees. Having a seat was part of the initial Outboard Performance Craft rules for “F” classes. The “F” stood for FAMILY. The boat was to be a commercial recreational use boat.
The feathercraft was sold as a raceboat. The Paceships were sold as recreational boats.

Many of the hull ideas from the runabout Stock Outboard classes were use on some of the early sport model recreational boats such as Aristocraft.

https://aristocraftboats.com/new-production/typhoon-12/

You didn’t see many America built boats at the boat dealers in Ontario in the 1950’s and 1960’s. If you wanted a switzercraft, Checkmate, or Allison in the 1960’s you went to the states to purchase it usually directly from the boat builders.

Ted Quinn was Racing an Allison in 1966. At a race in Ohio he made a deal with Checkmate Boats to be the Canadian distributor for Checkmate. He returned to Canada with his first Checkmate boat. It was a 16 footer. That was the boat I purchased.
https://www.google.com/search?q=v161+ch ... UkWfiROnvM

For the previous several months I had been trying to purchase a 13 foot switzercraft shooting star.
It was to be a smaller version of the 16 footer and said to run 50 mph with a 50 hp motor.
The boat never went into production with the shooting star bottom. They did produce it with a V hull design. The shooting star hull design was terrible in rough water and terrible in the corners, but very fast in a straight line on calm water.
https://www.google.com/search?q=13+foot ... aSHoGBMovM

The V hulls were superior all round except for the straightaway speed.

This is an interesting article about the moulded plywood hulls and how other manufacturers completed the boats. Even before I saw my first one race 1953 . These hulls had been selling in the US for several years.
These hulls are certainly a part of boat racing Canadian history.
http://historywithheart.com/yellowjackethull.html