By Kevin Stephani member of the Wine Country chapter The wood boat bug bit me as a 10-year-old child in 1968 in dad’s 1958 Chris-Craft. Always taking a Monday morning fishing trip on Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. A memory well cherished. Fast forward to the summer of 1992 while as a newlywed, and vacationing on…
By Mike & Vickie Rutkowski members of the Rocky Mountain Classics chapter In 1959, Oxford, MI was one of the small affluent communities just north of Detroit, MI, the automotive capital of the world. It was there that Cornelius Ray (C Ray) decided to apply some of the strategies of the car business to the…
By Larry Larkin member of the Blackhawk chapter Hathor is 73’ long, with a 13’ beam and displaces about 60, 000 pounds. Hathor was built in 1898 by the Racine Boat Manufacturing Company in Racine, Wisconsin, for Martin A. Ryerson of Chicago, who was best known as an art collector and philanthropist. The boat was…
By Tom and Janet Cathcart members of the Pacific Northwest chapter We bought our 1953 Shepherd model 110-S Sportsman runabout in the winter of 2006 from the second owner, who had just brought the boat back from Bobcaygeon, Ontario to his home in Lodi, California. This was the Shepherds first trip into the United States,…
By Jed Lykes member of the Sunnyland chapter During several visits to Boca Grande during the 1960’s I was always fascinated and attracted to the numerous wooden boats which operated in and around the area. Not only were they physically attractive, but the ones I had the pleasure of riding in were built for any…
By Randy Cunningham member of the Blue Ridge chapter Having progressed from a 1968 Glassmaster Tri-Hull fiberglass boat to a 1955 Chris Craft Capri started a new adventure into ACBS and antique and classic boating. Then finding a very rare and desirable 1965 Philbrick and restoring it to a level that made us feel comfortable…
By John Peckham member of the Southern Calif chapter Half-Hitch is a 13’2” sloop built in 1940 with apple that was felled locally by a 1938 hurricane, as well as with oak and Pacific hardwoods. She was designed by Edson I. Schock of Kingston, Rhode Island. She was built by a Mystic Seaport trustee and…
by Anne McClelland member of the Toronto chapter The Duke of Hogwood was built in 1951 by Duke Boats of Port Carling, Ontario, Canada. It is 17′ and the only Playmate to have the larger Greymarine Phantom 4-45hp engine, instead of the usual Buchanan 25hp Our family purchased the boat in 1954 from Aud &…
By Joe Lepley member of the Bob Speltz Land-O-Lakes chapter Those of us who belong to ACBS have read articles and seen pictures of dozens, perhaps hundreds of makes and models of beautiful old wooden boats. Some makes and models appeal to us more than others. Sometimes the lines of a boat just take your…
By Andy Luikens member of the Bob Speltz Land-O-Lakes chapter 1962 Dorsett is the second classic fiberglass boat that they have had and by far one, we will never let go of. The hunt for this specific make and model started when I learned that famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy was responsible for its styling.…
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.…