Miss Nancy, a 1941 Lyman 16-foot Inboard Utility

By Gene Porter, Lake Champlain Chapter

Miss Nancy – a classic “Barn Find”  was acquired for $1 as a gray hull circa 2015 from a cabinet builder in NH  who needed the storage space in his old barn. For some time I had thought I would be interested in an early Lyman 15’ Yacht Tender which would be easier to transport and handle than my larger Lyman inboard utilities (19’ and 23’) in those earlier years, but the Utility turned out to be a better choice for the rough lakes that I frequent.

Miss Nancy as she was found.

Miss Nancy was found to be a 1941 16’ Utility whose hull number, when compared with Doc Lyman’s Master List, turned out to be the last such 16’ utility built before WWII that was known to have survived – in this case, barely.

There was no engine but the original restorable dashboard instrument panel was found in the bilge along with the steering wheel, prop and most of the deck hardware and enough remnants of the original windshield frame to provide a pattern. The stringers seemed sound as did much of the planking, although it turned out the decking had been fastened with iron nails, perhaps because Lyman ran out of bronze  in the days before WW II.

I had originally planned to retore the boat myself and acquired a reasonable number of photos from Doc Lyman  and fellow Lymaniacs that depicted the boat “as built”. However, after sanding for a while and removing, with the help of a granddaughter, a large number of rusted iron staples that had been added at some point to hold inboard piping and wiring, along with the poor condition of the iron nailed decking, and strakes it became clear that  professional restoration would be required if I was to use the boat in my lifetime.

The Androscoggin Wooden Boat Works (AWBW) in Wayne Maine is the center  of Lyman restoration work in support of the New England Lyman Group and had done work on my other Lymans. I took Miss Nancy to meet the owner, Chris Cushman and we reached agreement on the scope of work and rough schedule. The main task was the extensive replacement of the badly deteriorated planking, ribs, decking,  and some framing with accurate replication of the original construction. 

 The AWBW work load was such that Chris ended up hiring a south-western woodworker who had taken a liking to boat work and  moved to Maine at least for the duration of Miss Nancy’s restoration. 

Authenticity being my goal, I identified the original Gray Marine 4-75 engine designation and serial number from Doc Lyman’s records and went on the net hunting for a close relative. I found a relic stored in a bone yard field in the Montana that had come from an early Century and had a serial number quite close to Miss Nancy’s original engine and had it it shipped to me.  Jim Martin, a well  known vintage engine restorer in Maine, agreed to take on the rebuild job, which involved a fairly extensive search for suitable pistons etc.

The only compromises with the originality goal were the use of dimensionally correct but  stronger modern mahogany plywood for planking and the 12v battery. The resulting restoration looks just like an original except the Lyman catalog indicates that only red or white cushions were available, while I chose green to match my other Lymans.

The boat and engine came together for water testing in time for winning Best Antique Utility at the 2024 annual Antique Boat Museum show in Clayton NY, followed by the ACBS International annual cruise and show in Gull Lake Minnesota.  I was surprised at how well this rebuilt boat with its ancient 4 cylinder engine ran during the  cruises – no problem keeping up with the “tall dogs” – the big Gar Wood, Hackercraft and Chris-Craft runabouts in reasonably choppy waters.

Miss Nancy would fill an important niche in any Museum’s collection if it could not  be kept in the family, which would have been excessively complicated if the boat were to be maintained in original condition. After due consideration I decided that Miss Nancy could best represent her namesake, my dearly beloved wife Nancy Lee Garcau who had unexpectedly died in early  2022, by being added to the permanent collection of the Antique Boat Museum (ABM). This seemed appropriate not only because the ABM houses the premier collection of antique and historic boats open to the public, but because Nancy and I had enjoyed many idyllic cruises in the Thousand Islands in our other boats.

Photo credit: Shannon Knight.

 Lyman utilities are still very popular in the Lake Erie and Thousand Island regions, with a history going back over a century to rowboats first built in Cleveland.