Chaser sailboats: a real yard whose designs outlived its name
Anyone who runs across "Chaser" sailboats might assume the name belongs to another builder's model line. The record says otherwise: Chaser Yacht Sales Inc. was a genuine, federally registered Canadian boatbuilder, based in Erin, Ontario, and listed under its own name in Canada's 1980 federal directory of boat manufacturers. What happened afterward ran the other direction — Chaser's own designs went on to be built and sold by others under different names.
Origins and ownership
Chaser Yacht Sales Inc. is the company's registered form; enthusiast class archives for its racing designs render it as "Chaser Yacht Inc." or "Chaser Yachts Inc.," variants worth knowing rather than treating as separate companies. The yard's boats were drawn by one designer, Doug Peterson, whose Chaser 29 and Chaser 33 were built to the IOR racing rule as a half-tonner and a three-quarter tonner, respectively. By 1985, the federal directory shows the same Erin, Ontario premises re-registered under a new company name, Morette's Limited (Boat Division), with Bruce Murette listed as president — still carrying the Chaser 39 in its 1985/86 filing, alongside an unrelated Hysucat powerboat line.
Lines and generations
Three Chaser models are documented. The Chaser 29 was built from 1975 to 1976; one example, originally named Justice V out of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, raced under the IOR rule, while another, Foxy Lady, carries a recorded 1974 build date that sits just ahead of that production window — an early-hull inconsistency common enough at small yards not to need resolving. The Chaser 33 entered production in 1975; a 1976 example named Marmalade was among Peterson's IOR three-quarter tonners. The Chaser 39, a fiberglass racer/cruiser at 39 feet 11 inches, was the company's largest registered model.
After the original builder stopped production, both racing designs kept sailing under other names. The Chaser 29 was reproduced without credit to Peterson as the Buccaneer 295 and the US 30; the Chaser 33 continued under a different builder as the Buccaneer 335. A buyer researching one of these boats by hull and dimensions, rather than by badge, will find more of the story than the name on the transom suggests.
