Tanzer sailboats: an Austrian boatbuilder's daysailer became a Quebec production line
Johann "Hans" Tanzer built the marque that carries his name almost single-handedly. Born in Austria, he apprenticed as a boatbuilder, then moved to Switzerland, where he built and raced dinghies and small boats, before emigrating to Canada in 1956. He first worked in aviation, turning to boatbuilding full time only as his hobby grew into a business. His early company, Tanzercraft, built Lightnings, International 14s, and Y-Flyers. His first original design was a 16-foot daysailer he called the Constellation; when his company expanded into Tanzer Industries, Inc. in 1968, the Constellation became the Tanzer 16, and the Tanzer name entered the market.
Origins and ownership
Eric Spencer served as Tanzer Industries' president from the 1968 incorporation until 1985. The company's most successful design was the Tanzer 22, introduced in 1970 and built until 1986 - about 2,270 of them left the Dorion, Quebec yard, by Johann Tanzer's own later count. Canadian Boating's obituary of Tanzer also credits the Tanzer 7.5 and Tanzer 26 among his other successful models. Beyond Quebec, Tanzer ran a satellite plant in Edenton, North Carolina, substantial enough that the 1979 Tanzer 16 U.S. Nationals were held in its shadow.
The end came quickly: production of the Tanzer 16 ceased in early 1986, and Tanzer Industries went into receivership later that year, wound up by 1987. That was not quite the last word for the boat that started it all. In the fall of 1986, Tanzer 16 owners formed a Resurrection Committee, and by the summer of 1987 the boat's own class association - not a new manufacturer - had raised the money to buy the trademark, molds, and manufacturing rights outright, negotiating with Raleigh-area Isotope catamaran builders Frank and Rhoda Meldau to put the 16 back into production.
The designers
Tanzer designed most of his own boats, and described his influences plainly: he was "inspired a bit by Uffa Fox, some by George Hinterhoeller and what was happening at C&C." That last reference wasn't abstract - when Tanzer wanted a larger cruiser-racer late in the company's life, he turned to George Cuthbertson, whose own years running C&C Yachts shaped the resulting Tanzer 31, introduced in the early summer of 1984. A second late-era model arrived by acquisition rather than a fresh design brief: the Tanzer 27 began life as the Paceship PY26, drawn by John Deknatel of C. Raymond Hunt Associates for Paceship, a Nova Scotia builder from Mahone Bay bought by conglomerate AMF in 1977. When Tanzer bought the PY26's molds in 1981, it sold the boat as the Tanzer 27, fitted with a deck-stepped mast.
Construction through the eras
Tanzer had a habit of over-engineering: the Tanzer 22's keelbolts were sized the same as the later Tanzer 31's, and the Tanzer 26 used the same mast section as the 22. The 22's hull-to-deck joint - an outboard flange bonded with semi-rigid adhesive and closed with 3/16-inch machine screws on 6-inch centers - reflected the same conservative approach. Practical Sailor flagged one weak point that engineering didn't solve: the Tanzer 22's iron keel, which the magazine called "a sore point" since iron is less dense than lead and prone to rust. The magazine also noted that resin-rich fiberglass typical of the boat's early-1970s construction era tends to turn granular and powdery around screw holes, and that its original gelcoat crazes easily. The later Tanzer 31 kept the same cast-iron standard keel, though Tanzer offered a lead version of the fin keel as an option, over a hand-laid fiberglass hull.
Who Tanzer is for
The clearest evidence of Tanzer's owner loyalty is the Tanzer 22 association itself: 700 members strong, still publishing a newsletter called Tanzer Talk. That kind of following, and the class association's own rescue of the Tanzer 16 after the builder's 1986 collapse, point to a brand that built boats simple and sturdy enough for owners to keep sailing - and organizing around - long after the Dorion yard itself went quiet.
