Goleta’s Radon Boat Building celebrates 40 years in business
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March 1, 2006 1:00 AMPHOTO COURTESY D.R. RADON BOAT BUILDING
Don Radon at the launching ramp with a new D.R. Radon 33-foot model.
'I’m going to build a boat. Do you want to help?" Those were the words of Ron Radon, spoken to his son, Don, 40 years ago.
An eighth-grader in 1966, Don came home from Goleta Valley Junior High one day to find his father building a boat in the garage. For four decades, Goleta has been home to the Radon family, along with the family business, D.R. Radon Boat Building.
The company now employs 12 people and is headquartered on Depot Road next to the railroad tracks between Fairview and Patterson avenues. Their signature boat is a 22- to 29-foot commercial diving or commercial fishing boat that is custom-designed for each buyer. The vessel is the staple of harbor patrols up and down the California coast, as well as in Hawaii and Guam.
There is a two-year waiting list for a Radon boat, which sells for $70,000 to $300,000. Customers include the Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol, UCSB researchers and search-and-rescue groups, as well as sea urchin and abalone divers. As for resale value, Radon says he knows of a boat he sold for $8,500 in the early 1970s that recently sold for $40,000.
Radon Boat Building is a family affair, with Don’s daughter, Katie, and wife, Linda, involved on a day-to-day basis. Don met Linda at Dos Pueblos High School – she later graduated from San Marcos High. They have two grown children and will celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary this year.
The Radon legend began in the early 1960s when Don’s father, Ron Radon Sr., moved his family from their native Washington state to Goleta. After learning to scuba dive, Ron Radon later tried abalone diving. A concrete worker by trade, he found that he could earn as much in one day diving for abalone as he could working four days in the concrete business. After one season, he realized the shortcomings of his 20-foot fiberglass boat and decided to design something better.
At the end of the second season, Ron sold his boat and together with his sons, Don, Mike and Ron Jr., began production on a new 24-foot boat. Using all the best features of the first boat and new ideas gained from testing done over the previous season, the new 24-foot Radon became the envy of commercial divers in the area. Ron and his sons were able to work in almost any sea condition, covering more territory more quickly than the other divers.
Ron Sr. earned the name “Superman” for his success in the commercial abalone diving community.
In 1977, Ron Sr. retired from boat building, and sons Don and Ron Jr. formed R&R Custom Boats. By the mid-1980s, commercial fishing was changing – abalone fishing was limited and urchin diving for the lucrative Japanese market was increasing. In 1985 Don took his first boat to the Los Angeles Boat Show, where he sold 20 boats mostly to commercial fishermen. He now manufactures about 12 boats a year.
Don and Linda love to fish, as well as spearfish for halibut, sea bass and lobster; Don continues to surf at his favorite spots, Naples and Hollister Ranch. Because they test every boat they make, the couple log hundreds of hours on the water every year.
In commemoration of their 40th anniversary and the death of his father, Don is designing a new 26-foot model.
“Sometimes I look at a boat I made 10 years ago, and it seems like yesterday,” he said.
Congratulations to the Radons for 40 years living the American dream right here in Goleta.
But then again maybe this. . … 
