Vino y Queso

By Dan Carretera, Southern California Chapter

Vino y Queso (wine and cheese) is a 1957 SkipperCraft Comet built by Larsen Marine on Vashon Island, Washington. It was purchased prior to it ending up in a fire pit after a tree had fallen on the boat house it was in, subsequently damaging the boat. My wife, Kristine, and I are critical nurses and this has served as a project of both passion, creativity and recently, therapy.

The original plan was to just make her seaworthy. That plan quickly changed to see how nicely she could be restored.  I restored the hull which from the rub rails down, remains all original. The topsides were extensively damaged, so the originals were used as templates to keep it as close to original as possible. After 467 hours and a mountain of receipts, we were finally able to launch her back on Christmas Day, 2020!

Fun fact, by chance I met Erik Larsen, son of Harry Larsen who owned Larsen Marine and built the boat! I have stayed in communication with him and some other members of the Larsen family. He was kind enough to offer some new hull badges poured from the original molds as that was the only piece of hardware that could not be restored.

We enjoy taking the boat out as often as we can and recently, took it to the annual Antique and Classic Boat Society (ACBS) show in San Diego where it was well received.