by John Richardson member of the Manotick chapter We found it very rewarding to restore my Mom’s old canoe, and to experience the gratitude of her new owner, my daughter Christine. Below is my mother in the helm position and her sister in the bow that was the summer of 1948. The canoe is a…
by Whit Conrad member of the Toronto chapter I’ve always loved boats-wooden boats. They take me back: sailing on Orchard Lake, waterskiing on Pine Lake, watching movies of my father winning races in his hydroplanes he built of wood himself and watching the Silver Cup unlimited hydroplane races on the Detroit River in the 1950’s.…
by Bobby Knight member of the Sunnyland chapter When I was 12 years old, my father purchased this 1964 Chris-Craft 17’ 6” Sunlounger in the outboard version and snapped on the chrome Mercury 800 from his previous Borum wooden boat. Dad, family, and friends loved Florida boating to places such as the Suwannee River, Santa…
by Larry Maloomian member of Sunnyland chapter We summered on Cape Cod and like many who did, I was a sailor. I kept my sailboat in a beautiful little harbor on Buzzards Bay. Moored nearby was a beautiful triple cockpit Chris-Craft that I always admired. Many of us “old men” try to regain our youth…
by Cody Taylor member of the Northern California/Lake Tahoe chapter Early in 1984 we realized that our 16′ boat on Clear Lake, California’s largest fresh water lake, was just not working. The lake was huge and the waves kicked up in the afternoon and would wash over the bow of our little boat threatening to…
by John Dupee member of the Lake Champlain chapter Although I grew up rowing and old wooden boat, I am a sailor. I have sailed and owned sailboats for over 50 years. Sailboats are, to my eye, visually appealing not all but most. The first time a saw a Lyman was from the cockpit of…
By Ann Reinhart on behalf of Tim Mehrer member of Pacific Northwest chapter The Bellingham, Washington based Schooner Zodiac, designed by William Hand, was built in 1924 in East Boothbay, Maine for the Johnson & Johnson family. 127’ on deck,160’ overall, she spent most of her life as a San Francisco Bay Bar Pilot boat…
by Rick Means member of the Pacific Northwest chapter In my younger years I was surrounded by friends who all had a lake place. Whenever the opportunity arose, we would head out to somebody’s cabin to go boating and water ski. This comradery built up my dream that someday I too would have my own…
By Ken & Jeanne Nappi members of Dixieland chapter To start I must say it is quite the privilege to introduce the ACBS to my 84 CC Scorpion 168. Our story with this boat began in the Winter of 2014. My youngest son Jason had befriended an elderly neighbor and from time to time would…
by David Arscott member of the Water Wonderland Chapter Why and How does my Dad, starting in 1948, a 45-year-old full-time employed mechanical engineer at GM ‘Pontiac Division’, married and father of three young children (JAmes 6, PAtrica 14 & DAvid 11) start to build a ‘speedboat’ from ‘scratch’? Having not asked my Dad ‘the…
by Dennis Padden member of the Heartland Classics chapter I grew up in a family that always owned a boat. We spent most summer weekends and vacations at our favorite lake in Oklahoma, Tenkiller Lake. When I was 6 my step dad had an early 60’s mahagony Chris-Craft, he named her “Ski Mist”. This was…
by Raymond Reynolds member of the Lake Hopatcong chapter Photos by Bob Kays I was introduced to wooden boats at an early age. My wife became a boater when she married me. At the time of our marriage I owned a 1942, 17′ Century Sea Maid. I sold it a few years later. It would…