“Why not have the best?” asked a Hacker-Craft advertisement. The answer was that there were few people around in 1929 who could afford $5,000 (which was on par with a Cadillac Fleetwood) for one of these era-defining runabouts, even in that gilded era as the world stood on the precipice of the great Wall Street crash. As for the reason you’d specifically want a 26-foot, triple-cockpit runabout, Hacker-Craft ads were equally emphatic, claiming, “This is not only the fastest bona fide boat of its size and power produced, but it will outmaneuver all rivals.” Notably, no law suits landed on the door mat from either Gar Wood or Chris-Craft. In no small measure, that’s because John Ludwig Hacker was not only a driving force in developing planing v-hull technology in pure race and record boats, but he evolved what became the blue-print of the American runabout that others soon copied, but arguably never eclipsed. With the engine placed amidships, control cockpit forward and passenger accommodation aft, Hacker Boat Co. runabouts were famed for their balance, comfort and smooth ride as they rose above their element and planed almost flat, rather than squatting their sterns and pushing a bow-wave uphill. Moreover, the highly successful, Dolphin-branded series, hand-built from finest Honduras mahogany with closely spaced frames, cracked the formula of combining lightness with strength. While the name of this 1929 example, Eleventh Hour, which was formerly part of the Terry Adderley Collection, pays homage to Hacker’s 1919 Gold Cup contender, the highly desirable Kermath inline-6 engine, as fitted here, was another icon of the runabout era, also favored in Gar Wood and Chris-Craft high-performance runabouts. Eleventh Hour is sold with a triple-axle trailer. While earlier Dolphins employed two-piece v-screens, the 1929 chrome-frame, three-piece screen is an improvement both aesthetically and functionally, with its center section opening for ventilation. The 1929 Hacker-Craft triple-cockpit runabout was both a defining expression of the roaring ‘20s and in some ways a marker of a passing age, for just a few years later in 1934, John L. Hacker lost control of the Hacker Boat Co. as the world grappled with economic turmoil.
