Eagle One Shop Tour #1

Noah Legear, Owner,
Eagle One Performance Products

    In 1969 Noah Legear began racing boats just as most people do, going from a simple first fast boat, to a little faster rig with each change of boat and engine. In 1969 he began racing in the F-E class in APBA sanctioned competition. As time passed, the constant drive to go faster was always overwhelming, and he moved up in the classes until he was running in the S-J, SST-120, Mod-120, and Mod-U class tunnel boats, where he continued to race until late 1982.
    His accomplishments include several regional championships, several national championship finishes in the top three, and in 1981, a third Mod-U World Championship.
    As a retail Mercury dealer from 1976 to 1985, he began to sell and market high performance parts and accessories through his dealership, as well as becoming involved in manufacturing a line of pleasure boats that sold through a 66 dealer network until 1989. In late 1989 he dropped out of the retail business to pursue his racing interest and formed Eagle One Performance Products Inc. to manufacture high performance boats, engines, and accessories for the hot boat enthusiast.
    The first facility was a 6000 sq. ft. operation that grew into its current 15,000 sq. ft. facility with a complete machine shop, powerhead dyno, and fiberglass fabrication section as well as engine building, all performed in-house with little or no work being performed off premises. This building and location is still the home of Eagle One Performance Products today.

Take a Shop Tour of Eagle One Performance Products

The first step in building a boat is preparing the mold for gelcote, which is the outside color layer of the boat. This involves several steps which include buffing, polishing and waxing of the molds.
In this photo, you see two deck molds for our Predator series drag boat ready for gelcote.

This photo shows gelcote being applied to the molds in bright yellow.

After the gelcote color is applied, the next step is applying the first layer of glass which is called a skin coat. This allows for inspection for any blemishes before the next multilayer laminate is applied.
Here you see a hull in lamination as the balsa core is laminated between the multi layers of fiberglass.

All lamination is done painstakingly by hand to insure the highest quality. Here you see the balsa core being bonded by hand into a Cyclone 182 hull.

After lamination of the outer hull, it is time for the transom and stringers to be installed.

Here you see a hull awaiting transom and stringers.

This is what a foam core transom looks like before laminating. Not only is it strong, but it saves weight.

After the complete parts are removed from the mold and trimmed, they are moved to the assembly area.
Here, a Predator 182 and a Predator SST-120 are being assembled.

Here is a Predator 182, being readied for custom paint.

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