John and Pat Kubat had reached a point in their lives where they felt
completely satisfied. They had recently become classic boatowners, and were very happy with their
new purchase: a 1958 Glastron SeaFlite. They found it after placing advertisements in local
newspapers and on bulletin boards in North Dakota and northern Minnesota. Specifying only that they
wanted a 'boat with fins,' they found the Glastron almost immediately. Still, the calls kept coming
in from potential sellers.
One weekend while John was away, Pat received a call that really piqued her interest. It was
about a wood boat ' with fins ' for sale. By the time John returned home, Pat, along with their
daughters Stacey and Kara, had become very excited about the new lead. John, however, wasn't sure
what to think. He had already found the boat he wanted: their Glastron.
'About a week later my insurance guy came up to me after a high school football game,' says
John. 'He told me about a boat that he had seen for sale while on vacation near Detroit Lakes. As
it turned out, it was the same boat that Pat, Stacey and Kara were interested in.' Since it seemed
like all the signs were leading him toward this boat, he decided to look into it. When he called,
the owner told him it was a SwitzerCraft.
'I knew about SwitzerCraft boats from Ross Pfund, who has a cabin across the lake from me
and owned a 1954 SwitzerCraft Shooting Star,' John explains. 'The Shooting Star was a
top-of-the-line sports boat, much like the Corvette is to Chevrolet. This was an extremely rare
boat.'
John asked the owner to send a couple of photos, so he could be sure it was a SwitzerCraft.
As soon as he received the pictures, John called and made the deal. Not only was it a SwitzerCraft,
it was the super-rare 1958 Shooting Star. It came with a Mercury Mark 75, but had no trailer. John
scrambled to find a trailer and went the next week to pick up the boat.
'It was in remarkably good shape,' John says. 'As soon as I took a look at the boat, I knew
this was the one. The twin windshields, the fins, the rear hatch cover ... I just liked everything.
It was hard to stay calm through the whole deal.'
John and Pat knew it would have to be restored. It was probably the nicest original in
existence, but they decided that minor modifications over the years would need to be corrected. So
they spoke with a restorer, who told them it would probably cost more than $10,000 to bring it up
to 'show' standards.
With Pfund's help, John and Pat contacted SwitzerCraft's co-founder, Bob Switzer, who was
interested in helping them with the restoration. Switzer told them his old friend and former
employee, Ken Bruce, could do it. Bruce had another '58 Shooting Star in his shop at that time, and
thought he could restore them together. 'After all,' says John, 'who better to restore it than the
people who built it in the first place?'
Bob Switzer and his brother Dave had been heavily involved in the outboard racing circuit
that was prevalent in the Midwest during the early '50s. The team, which included their father
Russ, was known for its radical new designs. The Shooting Star was a production version of their
cutting-edge racing boats.
'It was done one year later,' says John. 'I use it a couple of times a year, at Fourth of
July parades and things like that,' he explains. 'I'm more interested in preserving it. I've got my
other classics that I can use when I want to go boating."