By David Kanally, Southwest Chapter It was the spring of 1969. Without knowing he was about to start a forty-four-year saga, my dad got the itch to buy a boat. The weather would soon be warm enough and school would be out. Chautauqua Lake, just ninety miles away, would again beckon our family and closest…
Wuzz a Fuzz, Tom Flood’s 31-foot Custom Runabout By Dave and Connie Willis, Water Wonderland Chapter Sunk in a canal off Lake St. Clair. Ice had chewed through the hull. Not the best start for a classic boating story! Tom Flood rescued this 31-foot Hacker police boat and trucked it to his workshop in Florida…
By Reuben Smith, Adirondack Chapter and owner of Reuben Smith’s Tumblehome Boatshop In traditional boatbuilding and restoration, perhaps no other tools are as critical and as often used as edge tools. We find these to be the most accurate tools in the shop. In some boats, the seams are made tight with wood-to-wood fits, and…
By Tony Mollica Garfield Arthur Wood was a man of many talents and great determination. He was born in Iowa in 1880 to staunch Republican parents who named their son for America’s newly elected Republicans, President James Garfield and Vice President Chester Arthur. Young Gar was the second oldest of the twelve Wood children. When…
In the spring of 2010 we built a garage attached to the house. It was a clever affair with side barn-type doors for lawn stuff and a 26-ft. front section accessed by a garage door, which will be the new home of my 1948, 17-ft. Chris-Craft Deluxe. The trailer is already there and previously held…
Manistee, Michigan, is one of those logging era boomtowns of the late 1800’s that sprang up along the shores of Lake Michigan. Wood from the local forests built Chicago twice: once before the Great Fire of 1871 and again after it. Starting in 1929, the Century Boat Company began manufacturing boats in Manistee and continued…
by Michael Glenn, Adirondack Chapter When she was created, Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States and the Democrats were considering Woodrow Wilson for their candidate in the next election. It was a much simpler time than today, and her contemporaries were from local stock like herself, not from lands far away. Her service…
Christopher Columbus Smith celebrated a birthday today. This founder and namesake of the iconic brand Chris-Craft still today captivates devotees. With well over 3,000 Chris-Crafts spanning the decades in the ACBS membership, and a close connection to the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club,, what better time to revisit a favorite story from the winter 2013 issue…
Fiberglass boats, like wood boats, are judged in one of two ACBS categories: antique or classic. These two main categories are further divided into preserved and restored boats. To be considered an antique, the boat must have been built prior to 1943. The development of glass fibers goes back several millennia; a number of civilizations…
To the general public the term “antique boating” conjures up images of boat shows with row upon row of piano-finished mahogany launches sporting magnificent chrome-plated deck fittings gleaming in the summer sunlight. Hordes of spectators eagerly crowd around with cameras to capture the fleeting moment in time and to marvel. But there exists a smaller…
By Doug Adams, Finger Lakes Chapter I had just walked into my brother’s office at work when I heard him say to someone over the phone, “Yes! Certainly! We would be glad to come!” What was he promising me to do this time? Pressing the speaker button, all three of us were able to talk…
What happens when an old “Burger Barge” and one-of-a-kind Chris-Craft Aquahome becomes a second home? Kirk and Jeanine Hoffman, Water Wonderland Chapter members, purchased their Aquahome in 2022. Armed with blueprints acquired from The Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia they got started on a renovation to return their Aquahome to near it’s…