By Zeke and Carol Bly, New England Chapter I have been the caretaker for Sea-Quel since 2000. I know the Cadet was originally shipped to Herman Marine in Greenfield Maine on Moosehead Lake. Early pictures show the traditional Cadet design was altered with a wooden frame windshield and repowered by a slant six Chrysler engine. …
By John Loucks, Manotick Chapter Laura Grace is a 1951 Shepherd Utility built at Niagara On The Lake, Ontario. Her license, 4D3, is original indicating that she was the third boat to be licensed at Coaticook, Quebec. She still carries these original numbers. I have had no success in finding the original owners. However, I…
by Steve & Kathy Flood members of the Bob Speltz Land-O-Lakes chapter Kathy and I bought our 1st boat – a yellow and white 14’ Crestliner with a 50 Evinrude – from Schwann’s Marine on Long Lake in Sarona, Wisconsin. For the maiden voyage, Bill Schwann, Jack Kunz the mechanic and I launched the boat…
By John D. Smith, Southern California Chapter Our boat is a 1956 Century Resorter, 18-foot. My Grandfather bought it new 1956 in Alameda, CA. My Dad and his Brother Bud had classic cabins on Lake Tahoe six doors from each other in Carnelian Bay, CA. We spent the summers at Tahoe until 1996. The name…
Paul Mason, Glacier Lakes Chapter RELIC is a 1939 Century Deluxe Utility. I found this boat on Mother’s Day 2005 while taking my wife out to breakfast. The boat was sitting on a dilapidated trailer next to the restaurant. My wife went to the restaurant to hold a table and I knocked on the door…
Shady Lady is owned by Tim and Deb Salt, members of the Big Sky Chapter. The following description of the boat was submitted for the ACBS membership files. Shady Lady, 66 years old and still dancing, is a 1955 22-foot Chris-Craft Continental Sedan Hardtop. She is powered by the original 200 HP Chrysler Imperial Special…
Steve Benz, New England Chapter One evening in the summer of 2020, Cheryl and I were sitting on our deck looking out over Lake Opechee, NH and our neighbor waved to us from his 1953 Lyman runabout. She turned to me and said “You should build us a wooden boat”. Why not, since we had…
By Jeff & Char Appel members of the Big Sky chapter We found the boat in a field in an abandon farm in eastern Montana. Took almost 3 years to finalize the sale. Almost 5 years to restore it. The boat was originally built for Yellowstone Park, for rides on Yellowstone Lake. That is why…
On December 4th, Wine Country Classic Boats, Inc. on Keuka Lake in the heart of the Finger Lakes Region of New York State held their Annual Meeting and Christmas Party. A highlight of the event is the awarding on the Annual John Ford Spirit of Boating Award that was presented by Bill Olmsted, Commodore of…
By member Walter Legett, Bayou chapter I looked at the boat on the internet for about three years and read Danenberg’s book on restoration of wooden runabouts. After the third time reading the book, I decided to purchase a wood boat. When I was growing up in Gulfport, Mississippi, the rich folks had these boats…
by Dave Samson, Bayou Chapter I’ve always had a passion for vintage wooden boats, especially the “lake boats” I remembered from the 50’s. I restored my first runabout, a 1955 Chris-Craft Capri, that took first place awards at Lake Arrowhead, Lake Tahoe and most recently the Lake Pontchartrain wooden boat festival in Madisonville, Louisiana. This…
by John Bush, Dixieland chapter In 2006 my wife, Carol and I began searching for a “wood” boat to use at our home on Lake Jordan near Titus, Alabama. Neither of us had any prior experience with “woodies” but owning one was on Carol’s bucket list. As we began our search, our brother-in-law told us…