by Trevor Hall member of the Michigan chapter
The original owner was a family in Livonia who used the boat for skiing and cruising on Michigan’s inland lakes. In 1985, the father of the family passed away and the boat was stored awaiting restoration. In 2014, I bought the boat after the son realized it was too much work. I purchased it for $2500. I spent 3 years restoring the boat, mostly as a winter projects The bottom was replaced with a 5200 bottom along with a full hull restoration, complete engine rebuild, and re-trim and restore the fittings. The restoration cost about $30K plus countless hours of manual labor. The boat’s name is Echuca, pronounced E – Choo-ka.
An Australian town in northern Victoria located on the banks of the Murray River, Echuca is an indigenous name for ‘meeting of the waters’. Echuca is a place where 2 other rivers meet the Murray. It is also the home town of our family. Our grandparents lived there and holds very special memories for us. It is where we spent a lot of childhood summers and later returned as adults to vacation and ski on the Murray. After getting word of the boat name here, the local newspaper in Echuca asked us for some details and wrote an article.
