Bee Branch Boatworks Slalom boats...know anything

[perspective7]

Anyone know about these boats or the company?? I found a Bee Branch in Arkansas and NC...

[Cowper]

I love a good mystery. Some you can solve with google, others not so much.

This one is/was in North Carolina, although I don't know if they were really in Bee Branch or just named after the town. Found two things, a "company profile" with only a few details
http://businessprofiles.com/details/bee ... NC-0218640" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And a brief mention in a 2007 BoaterTalk post, quoted in part here:
http://boatertalk.com/forum/BoaterTalk/1305326/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That's cool because the APEs club was started by two c-boaters back 20 years ago. Crae Dalton and I worked with the YMCA in Erwin to start this club. Crae had a boat company called Bee Branch Boatworks that built primarily decked canoes...

[Eric Esche]

Now I feel like Obiewon saying that's a name I've not heard for a long long time.....

I used to build boats in Georgia while I was at Georgia Tech and later up on the Chattooga as Kamakasie Boatworks Ltd, a division of Shadetree Shipyards. I was small time for sure and only built 25 custom boats before I sensitized to the epoxy catalysts, but I helped maintain 9 molds that sometimes traveled around. I seem to remember a friend of Mike Larimer, or Frankie Hubbard, named Crae Dalton who built boats first as Empirical Boatworks before setting up a larger shop as Bee Branch, and I remember seeing Bee Branch boats on the Ocoee, Nantahala, and the Chattahoochee. He'd be a little younger than I am. Crae had a paddling bud named Rick Murrey. You might also ask old time GCA paddlers Dave Benner, Steve Thomas, Kent Ford, or Steve Scarborough. Crae had some hot boats for the 80's and they looked great.

You can try calling this number if you want to see if it is the same guy. 828 894 8595

IF you do not get an answer, let me know and I will ask Steve and dig somemore.

Eric Esche

[Donald]

All I have is a lack of information and that is that when I was slalom racing in the mid to late 90's with my kids I don't remember any Bee Branch slalom canoe or kayaks. That certainly doesn't mean they weren't out there, of course it probably means I am old and can't remember... what was I talking about?