By Tom Parsons member of ACBS The fact that we now own two classic/antique boats is ironic being that as a youth I grew up on a 31’ 1951 Chris-Craft Express and my earliest memories are of spending every weekend in the spring laying on my back in the mud scraping and painting. This was…
by Richard Reichert member of the Lake Hopatcong chapter As a child in the 1950’s I was lucky to have spent every summer at our family home on Lake Wallenpaupack. At the age of 12 I spent hours at the end of our dock hoping to see the occasional wooden boat that passed. Our immediate…
by Joel Rigoglioso member of Chesapeake Bay chapter Flashback to 1969 and I’m in 8th grade, thirteen years old. A student in East Islip, NY (Long Island). My classmate has been told by his dad that his grades are low, and he must sell his 1958 Lyman Lapstrake 16′ Fisherman. Complete with a 1957 35hp…
By Kenneth Boeschen member of the Blackhawk chapter I went about the restoration of a Chris-Craft U-22 sportsman in my garage. I did not attempt a historical restoration, I just wanted a wooden boat pretty enough that when people saw it, they would say,” Wow, what a beautiful boat”! After removing all the internal components…
By Ted Hall member of the Wine Country chapter My Great Grandfather, George W. Hall built approximately 40+ boats in the 1920’s and 30’s on Keuka Lake, in Branchport, NY. He and his wife, Carrie Campbell operated Campbell’s Beach with cottages for rent and George Hall “trout boats” for each cottage. Campbell’s Beach today is…
By John Dougery member of the Northern California/Lake Tahoe chapter An avid tennis player since the days of wooden racquets, lover of boating, swimming and waterskiing on Lake Tahoe since childhood, intrigued by the elegance of Riva boats, I eventually found myself immersed in the seductive “wooden boat racket” by becoming the third owner of…
by Kenneth Moeri member of the Lake Hopatcong chapter My dream of owning a classic boat became a reality in July 2010. I acquired Hornblower with love in my eye in beautiful Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey from an ACBSLH chapter member. Hornblower is a 1954 20 ‘Chris Craft Special Sportsman had been basically restored to…
By Kevin Stephani member of the Wine Country chapter The wood boat bug bit me as a 10-year-old child in 1968 in dad’s 1958 Chris-Craft. Always taking a Monday morning fishing trip on Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. A memory well cherished. Fast forward to the summer of 1992 while as a newlywed, and vacationing on…
By Mike & Vickie Rutkowski members of the Rocky Mountain Classics chapter In 1959, Oxford, MI was one of the small affluent communities just north of Detroit, MI, the automotive capital of the world. It was there that Cornelius Ray (C Ray) decided to apply some of the strategies of the car business to the…
By Larry Larkin member of the Blackhawk chapter Hathor is 73’ long, with a 13’ beam and displaces about 60, 000 pounds. Hathor was built in 1898 by the Racine Boat Manufacturing Company in Racine, Wisconsin, for Martin A. Ryerson of Chicago, who was best known as an art collector and philanthropist. The boat was…
By Tom and Janet Cathcart members of the Pacific Northwest chapter We bought our 1953 Shepherd model 110-S Sportsman runabout in the winter of 2006 from the second owner, who had just brought the boat back from Bobcaygeon, Ontario to his home in Lodi, California. This was the Shepherds first trip into the United States,…
By Jed Lykes member of the Sunnyland chapter During several visits to Boca Grande during the 1960’s I was always fascinated and attracted to the numerous wooden boats which operated in and around the area. Not only were they physically attractive, but the ones I had the pleasure of riding in were built for any…