by Joe Lucchesi member of the Finger Lakes chapter Growing up I was fortunate to have spent the first 18 summers of my life at our cottage on Cayuga Lake, one of the largest of New York’s Finger Lakes. Our cottage was directly across the lake from Castelli’s Marina (as it was known in the…
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by Tuck Elfman member of the Mid-Atlantic chapter In 1939 my Grandfather Augestus C. Elfman bought a bay front property in Surf City NJ., and had a house built. In 1941 in his shop in Doylestown PA, he built a 26′ Garvey witha cabin, which he powered with a 8cyl Packard. It ran smooth and…
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by David Martin member of the Northern California/Lake Tahoe chapter As a child of the 70’s, some of my happiest summer vacations were spent at Clearlake and Lake Berryessa in California with our 1959 Wizard Marlin Imperial when I learned to water ski at 6 years of age. I always loved going boating, but our…
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by David Kanally member of the Southwest chapter From time to time, the Wooden Boat Association of North Texas (WBA) is honored to receive a donated boat that deserves to be nurtured back to health. When Scott Reichardt offered us his 1948 Hafer Phantom 75, we jumped at the chance. The poor little runabout had…
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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…
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by Tom-Hanford member of the Finger Lakes chapter The Lord Jeff is a 22’1928 Chris-Craft Cadet,hull #1491. The boat was purchased by my grandfather,Saxe Hanford and his sister,Josephine Hanford Arnot. It was named based on the nickname of Amherst College,the Lord Jeffs,after Major General Jeffery Amherst,British commander in the French and Indian War.At the time…
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by Joe Oliver member of the Penn NE/Harveys Lake chapter I grew up at Lake Winola, a 185-acre lake in Northeast Pennsylvania where I still live today, in the late 1950’s. I didn’t consider our family boats antique. There was our old Penn Yan with an Evinrude outboard, a plywood sailfish, an Old Town canoe,…
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by John Heiderich member of the Blue Ridge chapter The Avenger was made by Impala Craft which was a division on Impala Oil Company of Enid, OK. The company was incorporated in 1969 and manufactured boats until 1973. I have not been able to find out any additional information on the Impala Craft company. I…
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by Stephen Fox member of the Manotick chapter I like old launches. Really old launches. The ones that frequently show up on retro covers of Rudder but are rarely seen at boat shows or anywhere else. These are the high-speed long deck launches built between 1902 and 1911. The are round hulled displacement boats, between…
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by Cindy Jordan member of the NC Coastal & Piedmont chapter Driving down Main Street in Sylva, North Carolina we saw a for sale sign on this little wooden boat. Stopping for a closer look, we quickly called to learn more. We made an offer and it was accepted! We were now the owners of…
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by Bob and Char Shadduck members of the Bob Speltz Land-O-Lakes chapter In December of 2015, I received a telephone call from David Watts of Little Rock Boat Works, Rice, MN, my boat restoration friend, regarding an unusual and significant boat needing total restoration and available for purchase. It was not an unusual call in…
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by Dave and Amy Drew members of the Water Wonderland chapter Our venture into the world of classic boating may be different than most. We had never owned a boat, we have never lived on the water, and in fact we always looked at owning a boat similarly to owning a swimming pool. We would…
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