A division of McLaughlin Boat Works

The history of McLaughlin Boat Works (MBW) dates back to the early 1960's. During this time, McLaughlin Boat Works Became World Renowned for the McLaughlin Snipe, which is a two man mono-hull racing sailboat. As time went on, MBW began to branch out and has produced a wide variety of racing sailboats throughout the years, including the Lightning, Day Sailor, Windmill, Highlander, Thistle and Tanzer 16.

MBW has always taken pride in pushing the forefront of foam/composite technology, such as being one of the first, outside of the aerospace industry, to use a vacuum bag in performance sail craft back in the early 1980's. That history of innovation and continual improvement are evident today in our new dust and climate controlled production facility located in Chattanooga , TN.

Beginning in 1990, at the request of families from the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, McLaughlin began a new tradition building its first International Optimist Dinghy. Today, McLaughlin specializes in the Optimist and has become one of the leading manufacturers in the World, winning the North American Championships as well as the World Championships two years in a row.

Over the last 10 years, not only has MBW tripled in size, but it has also built a strong financial foundation by diversifying into other product lines that require upper end fiberglass work. These include architectural ceiling domes, play ground equipment, enclosures for hospital diagnostic and computer controls, industrial robotic covers, and also hardtops and upper doors for the TJ Jeep Wrangler.

In the Fall of 2002’ the first Jeep Wrangler top rolled off of the production line. What initially started out as only a small part of McLaughlin’s overall product line, quickly developed into one of the companies top sellers. By year end, it was evident that the company was in need of expanding it’s Jeep Wrangler Hardtop manufacturing capabilities. The management once again decided to invest in the retooling of the current molds. Improvements were made to the Hardtop molds and manufacturing techniques were streamlined. It was also decided that the company was going to market directly to the end consumer, thus producing a high-end quality hardtop at a price others could not compete with. The hardtop division of McLaughlin was incorporated under the name “Bull Dawg Manufacturing” and a website was then developed to reach the consumers.

See optistuff.com