by Ken Slaght member of the Southern California chapter Hull # 48904 was delivered to Seattle Washington in September 1942 and remained in the Pacific Northwest until her current owners purchased her in September 2001. Not much is known about her before her full restoration in 1997-1998. She was restored in Kilwona, British Columbia by…
Detailsby Tom Dunn member of the Blue Ridge chapter The new fiberglass 1968 19′ Penn Yan was bought by my father after a barn burnt down along with our 1960 wooden Thompson. Penn Yan had only started making fiberglass boats a few years before that and they looked almost exactly like their wood boats. It…
DetailsOn August 10, 1920, the five speedboats convened in the Solent – a smooth stretch of water near the island – for the first “heat” (race). The Harmsworth Trophy racecourse was an elongated elliptical shape consisting of five laps. Each lap was about six miles – two extended straightaways anchored by a turn around a…
DetailsBy Dick Caradori member of ACBS July 5, 1958 it was a Saturday and my dad Leno (an industrial arts teacher) said he wanted to buy a boat and would I like to go along. Me being fourteen and the oldest of seven children, said of course and jumped at the chance to go on…
DetailsBy Kirsten N. Johnson When the calendar recently turned from 2019 to 2020, it marked the centurial of a truly epic year in speedboat racing history. One hundred years ago, 1920 was a time for speedboat glory in America, and for two American men in particular. Gar Wood and Chris Smith – working out of…
DetailsBy Jack Gifford, Finger Lakes Chapter One a sunny spring day in 2001 I decided to look at a large cruiser I had seen advertised in the paper. Since the inside dimensions were roughly the size of a small apartment, I felt that it would combine my love of boating with a summer place on…
Detailsby Michael Wetzel member of the Finger Lakes chapter In the summer of 2015 we finished our new boat house on Skaneateles Lake, complete with 2 boat bays; one the standard 10’ wide for modern boats and one 8’ wide for a wooden boat. The problem was we didn’t own a wooden boat. In fact,…
Detailsby Bill Carley member of the Mid Atlantic chapter The 22′ Hacker Triple was built for only two years, 1947 and 1948. My boat is registered as a 1947 model although I was unable to determine the actual year it was built. I purchased the boat in 1988 from Boyd Mefford. It was a gray…
Detailsby Bill Olmsted member of the Wine Country chapter I first got interested in wood boats when I was a teenager in the late 50’s in North Tonawanda, NY. As it happened, we lived next door to a guy who was building a marina on the Niagara River, and I spent as much time there…
Detailsby Ronald Lane member of the Pacific Northwest chapter Hacker-Fermann Naval Architects Co. of Detroit Michigan advertised plans for a “New 55-foot Bridge Deck Cruiser” which allowed customers options of equipment and furnishings. On December 11, 1925 Mr. Ivan Kirlin signed a contract with the Defoe Boat and Motor Works Co. of Bay City Michigan…
Detailsby Gregory McLean member of the Thousand Islands chapter The Vanquish caught my eye at first glance – as a classic inboard river boat and that was enough to spark my initial interest. My lap-strake Lyman needed work and without a boathouse I thought fiberglass might be a more durable way to go. I had…
Detailsby Clark Oltman member of the Sunnyland chapter I have owned this boat a little over 2 years. I was looking for a boat that I could trailer and use, not requiring immediate major work. I had looked on several websites and found that Dave Bortner at Freedom Boat Service had a couple that I…
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