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In the History Photo #3 post, it showed Darrell Kasenburg working in our mail room. Well, Darrell dropped by our office this week, so I thought I’d post another photo that he’s featured in…

Darrell was on the cover of the Southern California Boating and Racing Journal in May, 1961. He’s in the Tuffy and riding on air! Very cool photo! It was really nice to see Darrell again after many, many years. At 76, he’s still going strong and is very active.

Besides test driving some of our boats at the time, he also did some drafting work. He drew out the patterns on some of our early designs. Darrell said that he’s used what he learned at Glen-L throughout his life in construction and other various positions. Although retired, he’s taken on a large roofing project here in Southern California which is why he was in the area.

Darrell’s wife at the time was Phyllis, and she also worked for Glen-L at the same time. They both became very close friends of our family for many years. Their oldest son Kary and I were quite close when we were little and spent a lot of time together at the same babysitter nearby.

In fact, it dawned on me that the only times I remember getting in trouble was with Kary.  One of those times was when he was about 6 and I was 4 and we took the Sissy Do out on the lake by ourselves.  Another time we wandered away from home and when we returned, we were met with a number of police cars and very frantic moms!

So, back to the photo. This photo was taken at Hansen Dam. Darrell also remembers a time in the Tuffy at Marine Stadium in Long Beach where he says he actually ran the boat into the stands. My Dad doesn’t remember that happening, so I can’t vouch for this one.

Here’s the description printed on the inside cover:

Notice we had "in excess of 40 designs"! Compare that to over 300 today. And, the catalog was 50 cents as compared to $9.95 for our current book. Times sure have changed...

The Tuffy is a 13 foot outboard runabout designed for sheet plywood construction.  This little boat is well within the abilities of most do-it-yourselfers. For more info and to order plans and kits, see our website here: https://www.boatdesigns.com/13-Tuffy-runabout/products/367/