by member Tim Pratt member of the Bay State Classic Boat Club I came upon acquiring my 1963 20’ Chris-Craft Holiday by sheer chance in April of 2009. Sitting on a bar stool waiting for a pizza at a local restaurant, I started a conversation with an older chap next to me and not before…
by Nick Blaine member of the Mississippi Valley chapter In 1969 my family started boating Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri, marking the 2020 season as my 51st year enjoying those waters, so much so I believe the Lake of the Ozarks is part of my DNA. In 1969 I could go anywhere on…
by Rod Taylor member of the Finger Lakes chapter Sometimes, things that bring us joy and beauty have unpromising beginnings. So it has been for our classic “barn find”, a closed gunnel, Type 1, grade A, B. N. Morris, 18’ wood and canvas canoe. She was built in Veazie, Maine, circa 1911, shortly before the…
by Dick Fritz member of the Lake Champlain chapter Whenever I pass Rick’s Antiques I always have to look. Why not? I’ve gotten two dingys, a 1922 18’ Old Town HW canoe and last my 20’ 1970 Celebrity sailboat. Celebrity was originally a Dutch design which allowed the mast to quickly be lowered to go…
by Thomas Davenport member of the Southern New England and Bay State Classic Boat Club My interest in Penn Yan Swift Boats goes back to my teenage years when Swifts were among the boating hot rods of the day. Friends had 10′ long Swifts and I had use of a Hal Kelly Airborne racing runabout.…
The Smith Mountain Lake Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society recently held their first on-water event of the year following the restrictions imposed by Covid-19. Ten boats and eighteen members gathered near the Hales Ford Bridge for a “Cruise” to the Blackwater section of the lake. Shown above is a 1948 Chris Craft…
by Pete & Ramona Seitz members of the Heartland Classics chapter In 1968 a Bud and Bob Muraves decided they wanted to build a controversial style of boat. The boat became known as Renegade. It is an all wood Campbell boat with a modified bottom that was rigged to be a ski race boat. It…
by Alan Dowsett member of the Rocky Mountain Classics chapter I found out about this 17’ SS Chris Craft in 2012 as it was for sale by owner who lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We live in northern Colorado, 2 hours from Colorado Springs. I was marginally interested in looking at it, but I had…
by Doug & Ann Van Meter member of the Water Wonderland & Sunnyland chapters After our two kids were out of college, married and on their own we started thinking about a wooden boat. With a cottage on the lake, we had a pontoon boat but the memories of the wooden boats on the lake…
by Dawn Merrill Edwards member of the Blue Ridge chapter Sixty-six years ago, our boat began our family story. In 1954, A.H. Merrill Company, our family run general store in Norwich, Vermont, purchased the 13’6’ Clinker-Built built in Old Town, Maine. My grandfather, Leon Merrill purchased the boat for my parents, Arthur and Dorothy Merrill.…
by Paul Mason member of the Glacier Lakes chapter 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 of the house…
by Michael J Munson member of the Lake Champlain chapter The tale of a free boat project boat for which I paid too much. In the summer of 2014 some friends forwarded to me a local on-line ad for free canoes. I had just finished a yearlong restoration of a 1938 Old Town HW, a…