(See also Toy boats inboard and outboard pages.)

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Fleetline Marine, Inc., was a company based in California that imported the K&O Models, Inc., toy outboard motors from Japan into the USA.  They also sold their own line of toy boats that they had manufactured in Japan and brought to this country.  The first boats started coming here in the early 1950s and were of poor quality.  They were made completely of wood, including the hull, but were often defective.  In fact, it's said that about 30% of the early all wood boats that here had to be thrown into the garbage because the wood would separate and the boat would sink if placed in the water.

Soon, however, Fleetline started making much better quality boats that were either all plastic or had plastic leak proof hulls with wooden decks.  These were far more successful and millions were sold.  To me the nicest of these boats were the Marlin, the Sea Rocket, the Zephyr and the Wizard and Wiz Twin boats.

Most of the Fleetline boats are not hard to find, especially the Dolphin and Marlin, but there are some exceptions like the Sea Rocket which is very rare.  These boats were not made for display but for kids to play with so many are found in beat up condition.  Still, they are fun to own and to display your motors on.

Unfortunately, after the 1962 season Fleetline sold it's business to the Craftmaster company.  The Craftmaster company then made much cheaper looking boats and motors.  The motors were no longer die cast metal but plastic and the quality of the boats suffered too.  Craftmaster still used the Fleetline name on some of it's toy boat packages.


Click on an image to enlarge.

1. Fleetline Marlin.  An outboard cabin cruiser.  This is one of my favorites. It's one of the best looking of the Fleetline boats and pretty close to scale.  It was very popular and many were sold.  Not very hard to find but you will pay a premium because collectors like this boat, especially if it's mint in box.  It has a real canvas bimini top, takes 4  batteries, plastic hull with wood deck and cabin.  There are a few variations but most look the same. Some have an on/off switch in the stern. Later models came with a neat rope ladder, fender and coiled rope on the bow.  Be careful of missing horn, bow light, mast, etc., fitting's pieces on the deck and cabin, and also the removable wood flooring and seats inside are often missing. It looks best with one of the big K&O motors like a 6 cylinder Mercury or four cylinder Evinrude or Johnson.  Neat boxes.  The green and red  box is the older box and the light blue and white box is the newer styled box.

Fleetline Marlin.jpg (31058 bytes)  Fleetline Marlin1.jpg (25544 bytes)
Fleetline Marlin2.jpg (30917 bytes)  Fleetline Marlin3.jpg (28127 bytes)
Fleetline Marlin box.jpg (22577 bytes)  Fleetline Marlin4.jpg (25855 bytes)

2. Fleetline Dolphin.  This may be the easiest Fleetline boat to find.  They were very popular and millions must have been made.  Unfortunately, they are not scaled well and the hull looks too big for the deck, windshield and interior as well as too big for the motors.  There were several variations of this boat called the Dolphin II and the Vagabond.  The Vagabond is the best looking of the three. Often the seats or floor boards are missing.  Scott Smith makes excellent reproduction seats and floor boards for it.

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3.  Fleetline Sea Babe inboard boat.  Not an easy boat to find but for some unknown reason people just don't care for this boat and they usually sell very cheap.  It's a plastic hull with wood deck and the bow light works.  These should sell better but don't.

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4.Fleetline Sea Wolf.  This boat is almost identical to the Sea Babe above.  The only difference I can see is that the Sea Wolf has more fittings on the front deck, including two working lights.  Again not a highly sought after boat even though it's well made and good looking.

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5. Fleetline Sea Rocket.  According to the son of the one of the owners of Fleetline Marine, the Sea Rocket was the least produced of all the Fleetline boats making it the rarest boat they made.  This is an especially nice looking boat with it's futuristic tail fins and great shape.  It came in two different colors, a bright red and a beige color.  The beige is much rarer than the red one with probably less than 500 to 1000 ever made.

Fleetline Sea RocketC.jpg (13775 bytes)  Fleetline Sea Rocket.jpg (20475 bytes) Fleetline Sea RocketA.jpg (22005 bytes) 
Fleetline Sea RocketD.jpg (11747 bytes)
  Fleetline Sea RocketE.jpg (10997 bytes)

6. Fleetline Thunderbolt.  The Thunderbolt is a very simple looking and not particularly scale looking outboard boat, especially with it's almost flat bottom.  They were almost always packaged as a combo with the K&O Hurricane toy outboard motor and you usually find them together.  These must have been played with a lot when bought because most of the time you will find them damaged.

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7. Fleetline Fiesta Queen.  One of the earliest of the Fleetline boats.  All wood construction.  Not a particularly well made or good looking boat.  Not rare but hard to find in mint condition.

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8. Fleetline Holiday.  Another early boat by Fleetline.  All wood with a little cabin.  Not that easy to find, especially in mint condition.

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9. Fleetline Viking.  Plastic toy outboard boat.  Pretty decent looking for a plastic boat.  Small size but pretty scale.  They were usually packaged with a toy outboard motor like the K&O Sea Dart or the plastic 1960 Johnson 40 HP.  Easy to find.  They came in a few different colors with different color hulls and cabins.  This is really the same exact boat as the inboard Sea King below except that they added a small outboard well to hold the motor onto the transom.  Pretty efficient!

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10. Fleetline Sea King.  This is the inboard version of the Viking above.  Pretty much the same boat except for the small outboard motor mount added to the Viking.  It came in several different colors.

Fleetline Sea King.jpg (16567 bytes)  Fleetline Sea KingA.jpg (15622 bytes) Fleetline Sea KingB.jpg (15701 bytes)

11. Fleetline El Captain.  As far as I can see the El Captain is the same boat as the Viking above.  Almost always sold with the Sea Dart or 1960 Plastic Johnson 40 HP.

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12.  Fleetline Commodore.  All plastic indoor cabin cruiser.  Kind of neat looking boat with it's classic lines and flying bridge. This is a very rare boat.  I've only seen a few during my many years of collecting.

Fleetline_Commodore.jpg (20459 bytes)  Fleetline_CommodoreA.jpg (21363 bytes)
Fleetline_CommodoreB.jpg (20801 bytes)  Fleetline_CommodoreC.jpg (26835 bytes)
Fleetline_CommodoreD.jpg (26191 bytes)

13. Fleetline Wizard and Wiz Twin. This may be my favorite of the Fleetline boats.  It's got classic outboard runabout lines in a nice scale.  These are not rare and easy to find.  Unfortunately, many have broken or missing parts. The Wizard came in two colors red and the rarer green color.  The Wiz Twin is exactly the same boat except that the battery box was wired for two motors and packaged with two motors. The motors usually combined with these boats were Mercury Merc 22 HP, Sea Darts, and the 1960 Plastic Johnson 40 HP.

Fleetline_Wizard.jpg (17007 bytes)  Fleetline_WizardA.jpg (22451 bytes)
Fleetline_WizardB.jpg (20234 bytes)  Fleetline_WizardC.jpg (23501 bytes)
Fleetline_WizardD.jpg (30181 bytes)  Wizard green.jpg (18885 bytes)  Wizard green1.jpg (23624 bytes)  Wizard green2.jpg (18152 bytes)  Wizard green3.jpg (21500 bytes)  Wiz_Twin.jpg (25543 bytes)  Wiz_Twin1.jpg (25770 bytes)  Wiz_Twin2.jpg (23847 bytes)  Wiz_Twin3.jpg (26299 bytes)  Wiz_Twin4.jpg (22294 bytes)  Wiz_Twin5.jpg (21704 bytes)

14. Fleetline Zephyr.  Neat looking outboard speedster.  The Zephyr is almost always found in a dark brown color but was also made in the blue color later as can be seen in the pictures.  Always packaged with a K&O motor, usually one of the tin Mercury Merc 22 HP motors.  This blue model is packaged with the very rare plastic black Merc 50 HP.

Fleetline Zephyr.jpg (23412 bytes)  Fleetline ZephyrA.jpg (15886 bytes)   

15. Fleetline Sea Siren Hydroplane.  This is a really neat looking toy boat.  It's got great lines and fun to look at and run.  The were usually packaged with the 1960 plastic Johnson 40 HP motor. This is a hard boat to find, especially in mint condition and very hard to find with a box.

Fleetline Sea Siren.jpg (28176 bytes)  Fleetline Sea SirenA.jpg (30190 bytes) Fleetline Sea SirenB.jpg (15570 bytes)  Fleetline Sea SirenC.jpg (18193 bytes)

16. Fleetline Capri Inboard and outboard versions.  A very hard to find boat.  The first one is an inboard boat with a great looking metal top reminiscent of the famous Century Coronado boats of the 1950s.  The second is the outboard version of the same boat. Batteries are stored in a secret compartment under a bow hatch.  Both are Very rare.

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17.  Fleetline Ranger:  This is one of the earliest boats made by Fleetline.  The Ranger has an all wood hull and not the usual plastic hull you see on the later boats.  The reason is that the early boats, like the Ranger, were put together in Japan and often came to the USA in a defective condition or leaked.  This one to the right is in MIB condition.  The motor in the picture is probably not original to the boat.

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18.  Fleetline Sea Spray:  This is one of the early Fleetline boats.  It's all wood and not the plastic hull that they used later on.  Kind of neat for it's age with the rear driving compartment and long bow.  Looks like an early race boat.  These boats often came with the K&O Tornado outboard motor on them, which is shown in the pictures.  The Evinrude instruction sheet doesn't belong to that motor.  Not too rare but hard to find in good condition.

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© 2006 Mikee and Bob McDonald