A bit of Colorado lore: The Marryats were, evidently, originally produced by a small precision machining company in Commerce City (northeast extension of Denver), Colorado. At that time only available in black--no gold or bronze. I believe that George Gehrke, of "Gink" fame, was instrumental in getting these reels off the ground.

Thanks, Richard. What I really ought to do is take a quick pilgrimage down to that machining company and see if they still have any Marryat stuff left. It's not far from where I am--probably less than an hour. However, it's life threatening on I-25.

And where make Marryat fly reel ? In Swiss or Korea ?

This is a 10 year old thread that bounced to the top

The MR series are made in Japan. The newer CMR series is made in Switzerland. I really like the MR series reels. They are light and can be converted to run silent. They have their drawbacks as Bulldog pointed out in one of the old threads. Don't user standard reel oil on them, but heavier oil (like SAE 30 motor oil). The MR reels are no longer produced, and I'm not sure how available the CMR reels are, though they are probably available from Japan.

Carl

Bill Archuleta's grandfather was the service rep for Marryat, and younger Bill rebuilds them today.
Mine from 1980 has caught thousands of fish and the roll-bearing clutch has been rebuilt twice, by each of the Archuletas.
In the original day of Austin Angler, on the second floor above the Alfa dealer, they had a street-level window display, and the Marryat MR anodized magnesium reels were the nicest jewelry there.

I love seeming old threads resurrected. A great way to continue fantastic knowledge by great folks from this forum.

Hi Guys, The company that made the original reels for Gehrke was Sanco. It was owned by the Santorno family as of the mid '90s'. Their engineer, 'Bill' designed them. They were a fly fishing family. I did parts pick up and delivery to them basically every day for several years. They told the story that Gehrke didn't like the anodizing color that Sanco had an anodizer apply, so he pulled the job and sent it to Japan. Then, he didn't like the Japanese anodizing, so he brought it back, and then..... Back to Japan..... And yes, Tony Santorno, the patriarch, liked to do assembly on the reels and had a stack of parts under an eight foot workbench. Better get to Denver and figure this all out! Their QA guy was a jazzhead and volunteered at KUVO, Denver's jazz station. He passed away not long ago... It was a great place to go to..

Jay Edwards

I still cannot figure out why these fine reels fell out of favor with anglers ?

Pecos

It doesn't have the big top-end stopping power of disc drags.
The magnesium spool edge is easily bent by clutzing.
The roller bearing clutch has a finite life and is prone to seizing.

It will always remain the eye candy fly reel of the late 70s, early 80s.
Mine has fished all over and raised two girls on the river.

http://www.archuletasreelworks.com/
Bill Archuleta is the service guy for these reels, as his grandfather was before him.

Carl great pictures,whats the weight on the smallest reel ?........thanks Aurelio

Thanks Carl.........Aurelio