Frankly speaking

Words Ken Denison Photography History Fort Lauderdale

Ken Denison, son of Frank and Gertrude Denison, pays respect and gives recognition to his mother Shooshie, the doyenne of yacht interior design.

Gertrude Winslow Denison, co-founder of Broward Marine, is often given less credit for the company’s success and notoriety than her husband, Frank. Quite frankly, those of us who worked within the company and took part in the day-to-day process of designing and building boats would balance this credit due. It was, as many have told me, a balance of two very distinctive and gifted individuals who came together in a business that neither one had much experience in. And with that, created a product run that lasted more than 50 years. It was a combination of talents that made this business the first United States yacht company to have the largest order book in the world.

Gertrude Blanche Winslow – affectionately known as Shooshie – met Frank Denison in Saugatuck, Michigan at the Big Pavilion docks in the summer of 1946. He was dockside at the time, with one of his ‘fixer uppers’ that he refitted and brought north to sell (after he sold his trucking company, Frank would buy boats to repaint and restore as a hobby.) Frank’s parents had a summer place in St. Joseph, and Gertrude and her sister Janet spent the summers in Saugatuck at their parent’s summer home. Gertrude’s father, Clarence Morton Winslow, a.k.a. G.P., was raised in Saugatuck and their cottage was a wonderful respite from their residence in Western Springs, north of Chicago, where G.P. had his accounting business. It was at the Winslow home in Saugatuck, a year after meeting, that Frank and Gertrude married during the Christmas of 1947, before driving to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for their honeymoon. And it was at Dooley’s Yacht Basin in Fort Lauderdale where Frank did much of his boat refits on the south fork of the New River. The yard had been decimated by Hurricane George; a Category 4 storm that swept through a few months prior. After the hurricane, Frank made an offer to buy the place from Dooley, closing the deal shortly after he and Shooshie arrived in 1948.

Two years later, with a massive Navy Minesweeper program underway and three young boys to raise, much of Gertrude’s time was spent on the finances. With her father as a guide for the accounting, she soon played a major part in running the offices; the financial center of a small boatyard that would become the largest employer in Broward County. When the minesweeper program ended towards the end of the 1950s, the yard began constructing large yachts, such as ALISA V. Gertrude saw an opportunity, and created another milestone in the yachting business - interior yacht design.

Traditionally, both yacht exteriors and interiors were designed by naval architects. They were functional spaces with little sense of decor. They were considered men’s toys and required only the basic treatments. It was the same throughout the U.S. and Europe. When Frank embarked on the risky venture of building a large motor yacht to sell on speculation, Gertrude was asked to step in and, as Dad unceremoniously said, “hang the rags.”

From the start, Gertrude questioned the use of space. She saw that, as the yachts grew in size, they would better attract the ladies if the interiors felt more like homes. Her sense of creating from the beginning, her sense of creating a homey feel brought the wives into yachting, causing the