A Visit with Randy and Kris Streblow – by Kurt Rothe

On a beautiful fall day, Carol and I had the opportunity to visit the Streblow Custom Boat Company in Walworth, Wisconsin accompanied by our close friend, Don Taylor. Don spends a lot of time at Streblow’s in the summer tinkering on his own 23 footer along with a few other boats that he is restoring. He asked if we wanted to get a first-hand look at a new hull under construction and meet Randy and Chris Streblow, father and daughter owners of the company. Of course we took him up on his offer.

Randy and Kris greeted us with great warmth and made us feel right at home. And home it was, the place where many Streblows boats have been built over the past years and are still being cared for on Geneva Lake. We were truly amazed by the story of how the company began historically and by its current and well-planned operation.

In 1947, Larry Streblow, Randy’s father, began building boats as a hobby. He loved to personally design small craft and was very good at it. He was encouraged by friends to start a boat company and build small outboard boats for other people. He started his “hobby” in his garage turning out his first hull. Soon his hobby outgrew his garage and in 1950, he moved from his garage to 75th Street in Kenosha, Wisconsin where he rented a 3 stall garage so he would have more room for boatbuilding. Well, his boats became even more popular and the new location lacked sufficient space for his operation. In 1954, he moved to the south side of Kenosha and formally incorporated his business into Streblow Custom Boats, Inc. He still served as “the designer” and was responsible for creating all Streblow designs, from small outboards to outboard cruisers to inboards. Even today, all Streblow boats still carry Larry’s basic hull designs. The inside of the boat has changed to incorporate contemporary styling and current customer needs

In the late 50’s, his business moved more to inboards and in 1958 he designed an 18’, 19’ and 20’ Rebel along with a 26’ Empress. Larry was great at marketing and had trade names for every model. After 1965, the company moved to producing hulls of 21’, 23’, and 26’ in length along with a 28 footer that incorporated twin engines. Randy joined the business with Larry in the late 50’s and Randy’s daughter Kris also joined the boat company in 1980’s.

A great emphasis was and is still placed upon construction techniques and using quality materials. All framing is

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A new 1950's Streblow outboard cabin cruiser!

A popular outboard model but the basic hull design is still that of Larry Streblow!

A 26' Streblow on Geneva Lake!

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