And yet another rarity for Brent-1964 Abe Mathews

[Buzzard]

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1964-abe-mathews-trailmaker-snowmobile/?utm_source=dm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2023-12-06

[Milaca]

Wow, I had never heard of this manufacturer, but I found it is later connected to a company that my late step-grandfather had worked for (he helped construct Boatel yachts in Mora, Minnesota).
Here is some history I found of it on a local newspaper's website (Kanabec County Times):

The Boatel snowmobile story begins in 1952, when a guy named John Howes started working on an all-season vehicle. Howes made a lot of progress, even filing patents for some of his designs such as a track and octagonal drive system, but he never was able to get to full-scale manufacturing. Enter Abe Matthews. Matthews was in the steel business in Hibbing, smack dab in the middle of Minnesota’s Iron Range. Business was slowing for him in the early 1960s, so, to offset his declining business, he bought Howe’s designs and started building snowmobiles. Matthews called his sleds Trailmaker and he built 300 for the 1962-63 season, then upped production to 500 for the next season. In 1963-64 Trailmaker comprised 10 percent of the total snowmobile market.

While Matthews was building Trailmakers in Hibbing, Elmer Klapmaier and his son Jim had built a successful business building houseboats and pontoon bridges for the military in Isle. Their company, Boatel, was dynamic, and it built steel and fiberglass hull crafts as well as shallow draft crafts that could be beached – perfect for use on inland waters. When Matthew’s steel business began to recover and he was looking to unload Trailmaker, Boatel was there to scoop it up.

Boatel embraced the snowmobile business, manufacturing the majority of the components for its snowmobiles and only outsourcing engines. In their first year of production for the 1966 season, Boatel built Bulldogs, which were mostly a continuation of what Trailmaker had built. But, being experienced in fiberglass molding and manufacturing, Boatel made fiberglass bodywork to cover the rear-mounted engine and drive system, giving the Bulldog a unique look to its Trailmaker predecessor.

For the next season, Boatel debuted the Ski-Bird, a new, modern-looking, front engine snowmobile. The clean-sheet sled design featured a number of modern features. Maybe the most unique was Boatel’s use of an ABS resin material called Cycolac in the construction of its hoods that was tougher, more heat resistant and flame retardant than regular fiberglass resin. Leaf springs and steel skis up front, combined with a rubber track and rubber-mounted bogey wheels out back to provide what some magazines of the time called a more comfortable ride than other brands and one that typically handled better. Boatel wasn’t afraid to show off the sled’s speed either. During the Ski-Bird’s inaugural season, the sled won its share of races including the Eagle River International Snowmobile Marathon cross-country race, and it finished 1-2-3 in the Antigo International Snowmobile Meet cross-country race. To further prove their toughness, every Boatel entered in the St. Paul Winter Carnival Winnipeg to St. Paul finished, which was a victory in itself considering the grueling nature of that event.

The Ski-Bird put Boatel solidly on the snowmobile map, if only for a short time. Boatel built sleds until 1972, when it produced the unique and expensive Grand Prix.

Here is the new-for-1967 Boatel Ski Bird (this replaced the earlier rear-engine design), manufactured in Mora, Minnesota (25-miles from where I live).

[Buzzard]

Brent,
And now for $20,000 you can buy:
900 CC, turbocharged 180 HP
And people wonder why we love our Studebakers........

[Lark Hunter]

That '67 Ski-Bird is a pretty attractive sled. The basic shape seems fairly prescient... I know other manufacturers were heading away from the purely utilitarian looks of old by this time, too, but many of them still sported peculiar or frumpy details.

[enjenjo]

In the early 70s my grandfather had a Mathews Trailmaster. By then it was clunky and slow compared to the newer ones. I was not impressed. I much preferred my Yamaha. He loved it though.

[Buzzard]

And another temptation for Brent:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1979-chrysler-sno-runner-14/

[Milaca]

I currently don't have any snow in central Minnesota, so I will refrain from bidding on those pieces of junk