Hydrostream Venom...or not

[JDChase]

Why cant I find any info about the Venom. I have found some discussions about racing them but they got out in left field about drivers and so on. I am looking for information about where they were made...mostly in 2008. I have just purchased one and they seem to be a black sheep of the family? this site does not even recognise them as a Hydrostream model? I have also read that they were still made in Ga. but I cannot find any current info that supports that. Can some one please give me a little history and maybe useful sites on care and feeding? The boat I bought is absolutely perfect, not a mark, less than 100 hours. any help would be very much appreciated! Thanks

[Hippie459MN]

If you are referring to the newer Venoms, post Howard Pipkorn, there isnt really a whole lot of info and what is out there is kind of all over the place. Chubb Bryant, the owner of Stroker Bass Boats has owned (for the most part) the Hydrostream name and been building them for a good while now, but not consistently. He was building them in a shop in TN for a while, then he farmed out all his builds to a few others a long the way. There was a guy at PK Marine or something in GA building them for Chubb for a while and he went belly up and ripped a bunch of customers off, then Chubb decided to move operations to his Stroker facility in TN (I think it was in TN, dont quote me on that) and was going to oversee building Hydrostreams again himself and that was years ago and not one boat has been built since. Unlike the Howard Pipkorn era (the 60's until the close of the shop in 1991), not much happened with Hydrostream. I dont even remember when Howard passed on the rights to use the name but it wasnt right away. As of now, Chubb still has the name but Im pretty certain he will never build another Hydrostream. The guy is way past retirement age too so who knows what will eventually happen.

As for the older Venoms during the Pipkorn years, only two were built if I remember right, for racing and never made it to production.

[JDChase]

Hippie, I sure appreciate passing that information along its a good start. I really like to know about marine history especially since I now own 2 Streams. I did a bunch of research and purchased an 82 Vking actually from this site in July. I spent my youth between Clayton and Alexandria Bay in NY. When I was 14 in the 70s I remember a marina called O'Brians in Alex Bay NY having a bunch of these cool metal flake boats right out on the lawn. I would crawl around them, sit in them and imagine how cool it would to really have one! But now owning an old one has been just as exciting. This is a great site you have and I have made a few friends here. Again thank you for the kind reply.