Millie

By Joe Roberts, Northern California/Lake Tahoe Chapter

Millie or as she was known as for the first 55 plus years of her life, as just the unnamed family Chris Craft was the family boat. My father-in-law Ray bought her new in 1958, so the family could have a boat when they were at their lake cabin in Clearlake, California. She was nothing fancy, a 15-foot Chris-Craft Cavalier that served the Johnson family well for years. She was the summer ski boat, the touring the lake boat and the moonlight night  cruising boat, that saw three kids grow up and eventually bring their kids to the lake to use the boat. In all of that she had earned the assorted battle scars you would expect from a family boat. My father-in-law Ray was a skilled mechanic The Johnson Family boat so the boat was always treated properly and to hide the scars she was glassed over and painted.

After Ray’s passing in the early 2000s the boat was put into the garage and eventually relegated to outside storage, where Mother Nature took revenge. My wife always had a passion for the boat and all the memories of her summers on the late. So when we were asked if interested in the boat around 2011 we said yes. At the time we lived across country in Kentucky and hadn’t seen the boat in years. We arranged to have it towed across the country. When she arrived we were a bit surprised at the condition.

After about a year of looking into restoring the boat we had an opportunity to transfer to California. So we hauled the boat back across country again and never seeing it get in the water. The boat was put into a RV storage yard, while we got settled.

This is where the story starts. At a family gathering my brother-in-law and I struck up a conversation about the boat and my desire to restore it as a gift to my wife for her 60th birthday. His job had him working out of town in Visalia, California.

He mentioned seeing an article about a couple that works on restoring boats. They are long-term ACBS members with a list of accomplishments to their credit. The couple had restored over 20 boats at the time. They work out of their garage and do one boat at a time. As I found out, Bill and Hilde Wykoff were self-taught restorers of these old boats. Bill retired a while back from managing grocery stores for the Safeway Corporation in Missouri and they moved to Visalia California. There, he and his wife got interested in antiquing and Bill, with his  woodworking skills, was quickly known for his ability to fix and restore antiques. So, I guess it was just a natural for him to get into old boats.

After some introduction calls with Bill, he said he would have to see the boat to determine if it was, in his words; “worthy enough of a project”. He was nearing completion of an old Chris and would consider mine as a possible next candidate. So on one early January morning, I hitched up the boat from its storage yard in Livermore, aired up the tires and got the trailer lights working enough to make the journey south to meet Bill and Hilde. After taking the tarps off, Bill’s reaction was “she sure is on the rough side.” My heart sank at that pointing thinking over his statement “is it worthy for restoration.” I told him of the family story, my wife memories and her possible surprise as a birthday present. Hilde, Bill’s wife, and obviously the head business partner for this crew of two, heard the story and immediately started inventorying what was in the boat and what needed to come out. That’s when I knew we were starting the journey to restore the boat. I unhitched the boat in their driveway and headed home exhausted, but confident the boat was in the best hands around.

Over the following months Bill started tearing into the boat and Hilde would send me progress reports with pictures. After the rotted deck was removed and the sides scrapped, Bill suggested his friend John Rose, an experienced boat mechanic, to take on the engine work. So as the engine and transmission were separated from the boat, Bill and Hilde began work on the hull while John worked on the engine. In the interim, I searched the Internet for whatever parts they needed. I found a whole community of resources for locating vintage parts. The attention to detail and craftsmanship Bill and Hilde exhibited was outstanding from the big stuff like the hull and new chine line to the careful fitting of the deck lumber that was meticulously hand fitted, plugged and sealed.

My brother-in-law would periodically stop by their place and send me encouraging updates. The project took about 9 months. In that time all the hardware went to a local Visalia chrome shop and the fuel tank was sent out to be boiled-out and sealed. For a replacement for the old yellowed and scratched plastic windshield, we found someone who casts the Chris-Craft antique windshield brackets and Hilde arranged to have the chrome shop chrome them and a local glass company custom cut the glass.
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located an upholstery shop that constructed new seat frames from the badly weathered and rotted ones and upholstered with new vinyl. My brother-in-law arranged for the trailer to be sandblasted and painted with a new coat of white epoxy. John completed the engine overhaul and rebuilt the carburetor and ignition system. He reminded me of K Engine after rebuild my father-in-law with his knowledge and hands on experiences with these older motors.

So by late summer, a bit passed my wife’s birthday, Hilde called and said the engine was being installed that week and Bill and John were going to take her out for a test run. I, in the interim, got a suggestion for a rightful name the boat.

My wife’s mom, Mildred who passed away many years ago from cancer would be a fitting name to carry on the legacy for this boat. So after some discussion with my sister-in-law, the name “Millie” was arrived at. 

I still stay in touch with Bill and Hilde and check in with photos on the good times we have with the boat. They will always be special in the legacy of Millie. I am forever in their debt for taking on this project and putting all their skill, knowledge, craftsmanship and love exhibited in restoring theses boats.

Originally printed in the Summer 2019 issue of Western Wood, the Northern California/Lake Tahoe ACBS Chapter Newsletter