by Brian Fogarty member of the Indian Lake Chapter (A note from ACBS Headquarters…this article originally ran in the WWW in April 2020, and is republished today for ACBS Member, Jerry Laufer, who shared some wonderful stories today about the boats he grew up on, including his family’s 1950’s 14-foot Wagemaker with a little 18hp…
By Darrin Podskalny member of the Water Wonderland chapter The ownership of our 1959 Skipper-Craft started when a good friend of mine, Geoff Reynolds from Holland, Michigan had shown me his Skipper-Craft on a spring weekend in 2001. Geoff and I were heading to a swap meet for outboards and boats in lower Michigan. When…
By John Ables, ACBS Member I bought the boat back in 1974 when I was 25 years old and living on a lake in the Grand Rapids Michigan area. When I was a child my dad’s company had several of this same model that were available for use and they were kept on Lake Texoma.…
by Jack Singer Jr. member of the Northern California/Lake Tahoe chapter Stardust is a 1951 Besotes boat built by George and Charlie Besotes in Stockton, CA and is the second one they built. The first one is at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. I learned about Stardust while attending a Besotes boat club event on…
By Gwen and Bob Mitchell members of the Michigan chapter The 2014 Mitchell Sea Ray Bow Rider purchased in July of 2014 replaced our 50 year old pristine 1964 Thompson Sea Lancer that had been shown in the 2013 Hessel & Presque Isle Michigan Boat Shows. In our portfolio of boat inventory and the need…
by Denny Trooien member of the Bob Speltz Land-O-Lakes chapter The year was 1982. My wife Sue Ahlcrona and I had a 22’, 1948 Chris-Craft utility that we used on White Bear Lake, Minnesota. We also had a six-month-old son, who was our first child. As a young lawyer I did not have much extra…
By Leeann Wickens member of the Michigan chapter The Nicodemus is a John’s Bay Lobster Picnic Yacht that was built in Maine in 1996. The builder, Peter Kass, specializes in commercial lobster boats and this was one of the first custom pleasure boats he constructed. While in Charlevoix, Michigan for a wedding, we met with…
By Erika Kleckner of the Southern California Chapter. My 1964 Glasspar Seafair Sedan was purchased from my “Grandpa”, Jack Armistead, whom we fondly refer to as Salty. While boating with our friends on the California Delta, Jack invited us aboard his Seafair for a cruise. Little did I know, Jack was looking to sell his…
by Gary & Darlene Millpointer members of the Glacier Lakes chapter Purchased in 2013 from Delavan Lake Boat Shed as a project boat. It was a 1st for me in a boat restoration, as cars were my past experience. Project work started with a fully sandblasted trailer and all bung supports replaced with new steel…
by Myndy Woodruff member of the Lake Champlain chapter My wife Kate was chatting with a nurse in Montpelier, Vermont and disclosed our old boat habit. Everybody has an old boat story. It just so happened that this nurse had an old Penn Yan Boat and motor that had been hanging for decades in her…
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 Preston Stark member of the Dixieland chapter How we came to own our 1985 Century Coronado is a long story. We had a nice ’68 wood Century Resorter and a ’76 Coronado for several years. Thinking to downsize to one boat we sold those and purchased a very nice ’68 wood Coronado I rationalized…