By Neil Hoehle, Heartland Chapter
Growing up in the tiny town of Wapello, Iowa, with the Mississippi River at our doorstep, I started boating with my parents before I could walk. My parents owned a variety of boats through the late 1950’s and early 60’s, but always seemed to be searching for that one boat that would best suit their boating lifestyle. In addition to Sunday afternoons on the many sand bars that line the river, skiing, or fishing, they often took long treks up or down the river. Sometimes boating as far north as the river is navigable, and other times south to the Ohio River and into Kentucky Lake, they often spent a week or two on these journeys. They truly needed a do-it-all boat. In 1961, they believed they found it. Pulling a homemade trailer to Davenport, Iowa, they purchased their new boat, a 1961 model Chetek Empress.
The Empress seemingly fit their needs perfectly. The cuddy cabin sitting height was taller than a standard runabout, providing a more commanding view, and the cabin could accommodate two overnight, a tremendous benefit during their extended river excursions. At 17 ½-feet it was light enough to be easily trailered and stowed in any standard garage. It was nimble, with more than enough power to pull skiers.
Initially powered by the famous Johnson V-4 75hp, the Chetek was an instant hit. After seeing the Chetek, cuddy cabin boats became the rage in the tiny local boating community. Though oddly no one else purchased a Chetek, similar boats from Cruiser’s Inc., Lyman, and Thompson soon dominated. Women particularly liked the idea of a space to more discreetly change from swimsuit to dry wear before dinner, and the presence of a small, private head was no less appreciated. Children, exhausted from a day at the beach, could be put down for a nap inside. The cuddy offered plenty of storage too, though the accumulated clutter could soon resembled a scene from American Pickers. Our Chetek never did bear any formal name, though other members of the local boating community referred to it simply as, The Splinter.
As soon as I learned to drive, my next priority was to learn to back a boat trailer. I started taking the Empress out almost immediately. Often times I took the boat to the more protected Lake Odessa to ski, and meet up with other kids whose parents stayed at the many summer cottages. During one summer home from college, my wife and I met and had our date on the Chetek over 40 years ago.
From the time I and later my younger brother started using the boat, the Empress suffered greatly. In an attempt to bias the boat more toward our preferred activity of skiing, we added a tripod ski pole. Taking high school and later college friends out skiing until our strength, beer, or gas money gave out was our summer regimen. Skiing, pulling tractor-tire tubes, riding and jumping the large wakes kicked up by barges, the throttle knew only idle and wide-open. Becoming leaky, a sharp turn to pick up a fallen skier would sometimes bring water over the floorboards. Diligent use of the bilge pump was paramount.
During one winter in the early 80’s, my younger brother helped roll the boat up on its side and re-sealed the seams, replacing many of the wood screws with bronze bolts. (My father always maintained the screwed-together construction Chetek used was a mistake. Other similar lapstrake boats were built with bronze bolts and were far more robust.) The repairs worked, fortunately, and the boat was much improved. An occasional coat of varnish and some paint, and every two years some type of wood preservative, sometimes Cuprinol, sometimes things I’m sure you can not buy today, were soaked into the hull from the inside. Whatever combination of various witches’ brews penetrated into the wood must have done some good. A few years ago I circle cut a hole in the garboard close to the keel for placement of a depth gage and found the wood solid and basically new looking.
Given that my father worked continuously from early morning to late at night it is a wonder he found time to maintain the boat at all, but he did. The goal was always simple: make the boat seaworthy and get it back on the water. Since it was constructed in 1961, the Empress has never missed a year on the water. My father, however, did make one terrible choice in maintenance. During his biennial treatment of the hull, he once used something that basically amounted to roofing tar. Resembling Flex Seal, the substance coated the entire bilge below the floor. After soaking the boat for two days in thick globs of Citristip, I was able to remove it all with a putty knife and shop vac. I have since soaked the hull with Smith’s CPES.
Permanently acquiring the Chetek in 2009, my wife and I still take it out often. The old hull shows many battle scars from collisions with docks, rocks, skis, and trailers. It will never win any judged event, though I have no interest in having it judged. It has earned its keep, and every imperfection it carries. More than anything, my desire is to keep the boat in use and on the water. As a testament to the work my father and later younger brother and I did to help preserve it, the boat today operates leak-free and is as seaworthy as it has ever been. Most all of the wood on the boat is still original too, save for a couple feet of aft decking where countless water-skiers stood dripping off.
From the day it was purchased, neither my father nor I have seen nor even heard of another Chetek Empress in existence. We have seen Chetek runabouts, and I have met one person who years ago owned the larger 21-foot Countess model, but no other Empress. From our best research, we believe Chetek, one of the smaller wood boat builders, made the Empress model in 1961 and 1962 only. It is most likely, barring some undiscovered barn find, the last surviving Chetek Empress.
Great story! What memories! That’s what it is all about…
A great story about the area and a nice looking boat!