THE PICNIC BOAT BACK STORY
The Hinckley Company was founded in 1928, and even though it had been building motorboats since before World War II, it developed a worldwide reputation after the war for its beautiful and seaworthy sailing yachts. Its Bermuda 40 sloops and yawls are considered classics and have retained their resale value.
In 1993, when then Hinckley co-owner Shep McKenney asked Naval architect Bruce King to design a motorboat, King had mostly designed sailboats, and Hinckley had only built a handful of its Talaria motorboats. “His [McKenney’s] intent was that this would never be a big seller, but instead a niche product,” King told Kate Yeomans of the Robb Report about the first Picnic Boat in 2005. “But then everybody wanted a piece of that niche. Its success surprised everyone.”
That first Picnic Boat was a 36-foot long, single-jet beauty with a fine entry and lovely tumblehome that exported the Down East look to the rest of the world. It was one of the first boats of its size with water-jet propulsion and joystick control and was well ahead of its time.
After its launch, in the summer of 1994, the Picnic Boat suddenly became hot and soon celebrities like Martha Stewart and Geraldo Rivera were snapping them up. Other boat builders realized Hinckley had struck gold, and soon designed their own versions, though those who laid claim to the Picnic Boat name soon learned that if it wasn’t a Hinckley, it wasn’t a Picnic Boat.
Hinckley built 370 of the 36- foot Bruce King- designed Classic and Extended Pilothouse versions, between 1994 and 2008, when it was replaced with the Michael Peters-designed Picnic Boat 37 Mark III.
Peters’ 37-footer was an updated version of the 36-footer, with twin engines, 14 additional inches of beam, 13 more inches of length, extra deadrise aft, a fuller forefoot, larger interior space, greater speed and improved handling — all while retaining the original Picnic Boat’s style. “It’s a modern bottom, melded with a classic-looking boat,” Peters told Soundings in 2008. In 2013, Peters also designed the Hinckley Picnic Boat 34.
The Hinckley Picnic Boat 40 is now the largest, latest evolution of both King’s iconic boat, and Peters’ 37-foot design.
Today, The Hinckley Company builds about 50 Talarias and Picnic Boats per year and in total has built more than 1,100 jet-drive boats. The company now builds only about one or two sailboats per year, mostly made by Morris Yachts, which Hinckley purchased in 2016.