Depends on who you talk to. The best version I have is=====After WW2, a navel designer designed a boat [hull] that would be efficient and allow a person to stand on the bow without the front going under for military use. Then the next time this design pops up is on an Apollo fishing boat. Then Youngblood copied it and made some fast boats out of that mold. Then he sold the molds to Earl Smith in Texas. Now is when it gets cloudy. Bill Scotten says he purchased them[the molds] in a business deal and started California Performance. In 1991 Bill made new molds and sold his old ones. He told me he sold them to Mantra. He said Mantra never finished paying for them and he repossessed them and sold them to somebody in Australia. There are other molds for gullwings out there but it's cloudy who's are original and who's are copy's. The stories vary. but that's the gist of it. Budlight
Pat you are right in that it depends on who you talk to. And to some extent all these stories are intertwined. Now Youngblood was in California building the Esquires then moved to Cabot, Ar and with Neal Clark they used a center keel much similiar to the Esquire and began working towards the gullwing style. At Apollo they even had a tri-hull ski boat that resembled the Cobalt and Glastron boats. Jack Seastrum says the gullwing is a derivative of the Cobalt and Ervin Capps says there is also a Glastron resemblance. Anyway I am sure any of Jim's previous work and knowledge was used when he designed the "Cathedral" of "Gullwing" style of the TX-19. Now this boat is the one that has been most copied and there are many derivatives including your hull that was modified in Oklahoma.
As far as Earle Smith and Bill Scotten go, Earle began building Youngblood boats in El Paso then changed some of the design and called them Performance Jet Boats. He then worked with Bill Scotten and Bill constructed the Performance Jet Boat in California and later changed the name to California Performance. For visual proof of these statements view the advertisements below.
http://www.youngbloodjetboats.com/ads/yb_adv1.jpg
This advertisement was printed during the time Earle Smith was producing the TX-19 in conjunction with Youngblood Jetboats.
http://www.youngbloodjetboats.com/ads/performance.jpg
This advertisement was printed after Earle Smith separated with Youngblood Jetboats, straightened the sides and shortened the TX-19 to produce the Earle Smith Performance 18' Gullwing. Bill Scotten was also offering the Performance Jetboat in California. Notice the address.
http://www.youngbloodjetboats.com/ads/cp2.jpg
This advertisement was printed after Scotten separated with Earle Smith
Performance Jetboats and marketed his own gullwings.
Interesting info that I hope helps.
Gearhead