by Gerard Cerand member of the Finger Lakes chapter When I was in high school in Elmira, NY in the mid-1950s, I had a lot of friends whose families had cottages on Keuka Lake. My close childhood friend, Jack McLeod’s family had a cottage on the lake with a beautiful GarWood Wooden Boat to water…
by Brad Rhine member of the Adirondack chapter While growing up spending summers on Lake Placid, learning how to care for and drive a boat became a rite of passage, with the size and horsepower being age appropriate. For this reason, when our three kids became of age to pass their boater safety course, I…
by Jim Russell member of the Chautauqua Lake Twin Tier chapter My wife and I became first time boat owners April of 2017 after a longtime fascination with classic wooden boats. Our local paper had a listing for a 1956 Chris-Craft, Mahogany Sportsman Runabout completely restored with trailer. I called the seller and after he…
by Valerie Stabenow member of the Glacier Lakes chapter I grew up around wood boats on Lauderdale Lakes in southern Wisconsin in the ‘60s. Boy, those were the boats to have, but unfortunately, that was not possible for my family. Fast forward to 2006, living on a lake north of Madison, WI, when my non-boating…
by David Berett member of the Pacific Northwest chapter My 1941 Chris-Craft started its life as a 22’ Utility. I found it sitting outside on a forested bluff overlooking Puget Sound in La Conner, WA in 1980. The original wood top had been cut off with a chainsaw and was laying over the engine box,…
By Steve Dagg member of the Heartland Classics chapter She is a 1957, 20’ Chris- Craft Holiday. In 2016, I found her through an ad out of Crosslake, Minnesota. She was originally delivered with hull number HY-20-118 to Minnetonka, Minnesota, powered with a Chris-Craft M-130 and, at that point, had been in storage for more…
By Elinor Miller member of the Mid-Atlantic chapter Fuzzy Beast is 37’ 1967 steel-hulled Chris Craft Roamer designed for boating on the Great Lakes. I acquired her in 1974 while I was living in Chicago. She was my second boat and I was her second owner. The name referred to my cat. My first boat…
By John Trainer member of the Toronto chapter I have had a lifelong interest in classic boats. This reflects the fact that my summers have been spent on the Muskoka Lakes where some of the finest wooden boats in North America were built, and still ply the waters today. I grew up around two launches…
By Casey DeHollander member of the Water Wonderland chapter My first memory of wooden boats goes back to my uncle’s Chris-Craft U-22 on Lake Charlevoix. She was a real head turner. Another uncle owned a cottage on Big Star Lake. I spent a lot of summers there watching the fastest boat on the lake, a…
By John & Pat Gauntt member of the Dixieland chapter The story of Mama Hat goes back to perhaps the early 1940’s when my folks took me to Clementon Lake Park, an amusement park in New Jersey. Among the attractions beside the roller coaster and merry-go-round was a speed boat ride. It cost 50 cents.…
By Steve & Cheryl Caplan members of Northern California/ Lake Tahoe chapter Her name was chosen at a family gathering. Cheryl’s mother saw a picture of what she was going to look like when she was finished and immediately said, “I’d name her Lollipop because she looks like an old fashioned red and white lollipop!”…
By Kenneth Barton member of the Southern California chapter In the early 50’s my Mom & Dad, Earl and Velma Barton, got interested in boating. They purchased a used 18′ Owens cabin cruiser from a private party. They ended up buying a 22′ Trojan cruiser from a Trojan dealership in Lakewood California. In late 1957…