by Richard Lowery member of the Chesapeake Bay chapter Like me, most ACBS members in the country suffer from the addiction of loving old boats. My addiction started years ago when my father used a 17′ wood catboat, without its mast and rigging, as a power boat to fish for pickerel on Lake Erie.The cat…
by James Goodrich member of the Sunnyland chapter My ELCO 24′ electric launch is a reproduction of a late 1890s boat that, in turn, was based on larger Electric Launch Co. boats used to transport passengers on the flooded Midway of Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. In 1987 Joe Fleming and Bill Swanson planned and…
by Lynn Kasin member of the Hudson River chapter I grew up on the south shore of Long Island where the Great South Bay beckoned me from a young age. My Grandfather had a 34′ 1924 Elco Cruisette where we often spent the weekends picnicking and clamming near West Island. As a teenager I had…
by Bill & Jan Stephenson members of the Michigan chapter A long time ago in the early 70’s I worked for a brief time in sales at Donzi Marine in North Miami Florida. The Donzi factory was next door to the Magnum factory which at the time was owned by Bobby Rautbord (a well known…
by Bill Watson member of the Northern California/Lake Tahoe chapter In the early 20th Century, flamboyant Captain George Whittell, Jr. was a very wealthy young man having many extravagant hobbies and obsessions, including acquiring the best machines that modern technology had to offer. He owned multiple airplanes, Duesenberg luxury motorcars, and a small fleet of…
by Steve Shehadi member of the Finger Lakes chapter “Skim Boating is the newest fad at cypress gardens.” – Popular mechanics magazine April 1950 The Hansen Skim board was developed by Emil Hansen from Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania and was an early predecessor to the very popular Jet Ski you see today. This project started with…
by John Peck member of the Toronto chapter In the summer of 1920 on Lake of Bays in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, my father had just been given his first boat at the age of five,a rowboat (Bay) of his own to experience the freedom of exploring the lake at will. From my conversations with him…
by John Maddox member of the Southern California chapter This particular boat is interesting in that a 28′ model Hackercraft was not officially offered for 1928. A raised-coaming, wood vee-windshield Dolphin DeLuxe was offered one-year-only in 1927. For 1928 the Dolphin DeLuxe was stretched to 29′ and had a completely flush deck with a flattened…
by Steven Perkins member of the New England chapter Gray Owl is a very original 1928 22′ Chris Craft, Model 1, hull # 1509. It was delivered new by train to Irwin Marine on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. In 1936 my grandmother’s uncle purchased Gray Owl from Downing’s Marina for $600 and it has…
by Susan Rodriguez member of the Northern California/Lake Tahoe chapter Rumba is a 1927 triple cockpit 26’ Baby Gar, Jr., a model that was built only one year and was showcased in January 1927 at the New York Boat Show in the Barclay Hotel. She is #41 out of 75 runabouts that were built. Interestingly,…
by Robert Black member of the Southwest chapter I had never seen an Aristo Craft before I went to a boat show in Mt. Dora, Florida. The boat is made in Atlanta, GA. and most of them have been sold on the east coast. They were made in the 1950s in a family business and…
by Mark Smith member of the Water Wonderland chapter What do you get when you combine an artist, engineer, and a craftsman? Answer: My dad Chris. Like all boats he has touched, our Rocket turned out to be a jewel of a boat. Quite different from what was delivered from the factory. Our very good…