Don’t Mess With Woody Boaters, Or We’ll Get All Dane Anderson On Your Aft!
We got this fun story in from Dave Bortner at Freedom Boat Service yesterday regarding a little suspicious confusion on another site. Wait, I will let Dave tell the story.. Take it away Dave.
I swear Dane Anderson runs some sort of home desktop version of the NSA ECHELON program pointed at all things vintage boat. He comes up with all kinds of arcane data points that I’d never find. And fast, too!
For Sale On Freedom boat Service Site
Last night, he forwarded a couple Website posts about a boat we posted for sale a couple days ago. On one of the discussion threads another vintage boat site felt a document I posted was “highly suspect,” and went on to question the originality of some of the features of the boat in question.
Screen grab from Fiberglassics.com – BTW a very cool site on Fiberglass classic boats
After I got over my initial mild annoyance, it occurred to me that perhaps there’s a generation of Woody Boaters out there who didn’t realize the Chris-Craft archives, at one time, belonged to, um, Chris-Craft.
The document in question above was the original data sheet requested from Chris-Craft. When my dad and I began restoring boats in the mid 1970’s, we’d call over to Algonac, and ask Joe Morrison a bunch of stupid questions, and he would (very patiently) answer them, generate a data sheet, and send it off in the mail. I believe Joe follows WoodyBoater, and could probably flesh out how that worked on the Algonac end.
The old plant in Algonac, now a marina owned by fellow Woody Boater Pete Beauregard. And… mmm some sort of show late summer close by. I cant recall, but someone will no doubt chime in.
When I saw this one in the file with the boat, I thought, “huh, haven’t seen one of those in awhile, I’ll post that with the listing.” Apparently, our intrepid comment guy wasn’t aware of that history, and thought it was made up. Nope, that’s just how it was done back in the day! Of course, later on, Chris-Craft donated the archive to the Mariners’ Museum, and that’s where we’ve gone for Chris-Craft research since, like original hull card copies 
The commenter on the forum went on to question certain features of the boat, and since I was in the file, I got curious about the differences between a “Deluxe” Utility, and a “Standard”. Page 4 of the 1939 Chris-Craft Catalog shows the two boats right next to each other, so some of the differences can be seen.
A deeper dive into the spec page below, tells the more complete story.
If you ordered the “Deluxe” version, you received the following upgrades over “Standard”: boot top (waterline) painted, cutwater, five seat cushions versus two, chocks, fire extinguisher, Linoleum floor covering, three-unit instrument panel, upholstered seatbacks, paneled cockpit (ceiling boards), box spring seat bottoms, step pads, ventilators, and folding windshield. It appears the price differential for all that equipment was approximately $200. Standard engine was the 60 hp Model B four-cylinder, optional in the Deluxe was 95 hp Model K.
Holds the entire family
In the boathouse
I’ve also included some original photos, wherein many of these details are confirmed. Oh, yeah, and here’s the listing on our web site: RIGHT HERE
Ready to go
You just never know how you’ll end up spending a January Saturday in Minnesota, but it confirms the best part of my job: I get to learn something new every day!
We here at Woody Boater went a bit further and overlapped one new photo over the old. Perfect match
A huge thanks to Dave Bortner from Freedom Boat Service and Dane Anderson from the WB-NSA for finding the fun in this over a winter day.
OK, I know our good friend, Dave Bortner, knows about the big ACBS Port Huron International event in September, but our WoodyBoater leader still seems a little confused.
A full week of Blue Water fun, including a Poker Run and Old Club luncheon in the Algonac St. Clair flats, known as the Venice of America. The Michigan chapter and the ACBS are putting together a great event. Make your reservations early, rooms are booking up, and Bring your Boat Home!
Algonac is beautiful & historic and the people are wonderful but Venice of America ?..I thought that was Ft. Lauderdale’s claim to fame.
OK Wilson you got me. It is referred to as the Venice of Michigan. Sorry for overstepping my bounds when I wrote that at 6:30 this morning with my grandson on my lap! LOL
The add photo of the Deluxe vs. the Standard cracks me up! You’ll notice, in the Deluxe the woman is driving and the man/husband is sitting in the back. Show that add to your wife in 1939 and she’ll say, “honey, if we’re getting a new boat we may as well spend a little extra and get the Deluxe”.
The woman passenger is giving the driver a fist bump as if saying “look at you. You go girl” I’m still working on ol’ boy to let me take this one by myself. And you can tell by the water color. That’s definitely Algonac : -)
Porcupine head: Actually I think they are passing the Grey Poupon.
WHHAAAAAT? I knew there was something going on. Thanks Greg for the reminder. i keep forgetting
How could you
This is exactly why I hate reading wooden boat posts on the facebook. Anyone can just lay there uneducated comments out there.
I’m still not convinced. That last photo looks suspect.
Dane and Dave are both walking, boating encyclopedias! Two good people to have in your boat club, especially for a guy like me who knows diddly squat.
Some things never change. I still call Joe and ask him questions.
Your right Jim, joe being the last employee at Algonac he is a wealth of knowledge. I feel greatful to be a friend of his
Jim, have you run across any model B shepherd hook style water returns?
Is the copper water return shape shown original or should it be a “Shepherd Hook” shape? Anyone have a picture? I want to change mine.
It is interesting how people can get confused over the different options that Chris-Craft offered. I have even heard very knowledgeable members of our hobby criticize certain aspects of a boat as “not original” until they are presented with the hull card that shows that the boat was custom ordered from the factory with specific changes from the generic models.
Good point Troy. Chris Craft was a production builder, but, I’m sure if a buyer custom ordered a boat other options would be available for a price.
You could special order your Chris Craft almost anyway you wanted it. For example there was a special ordered prewar 25’ Sportsman you could steer standing on the floor or on top of the engine box. The boat also had no interior and was special ordered with an RM8 Royal engine which was only available in the postwar 25’ Sportsman’s. If you had the money Chris Craft would build it the way you want.
now you did it!
the http://fiberglassics.com/
site is down.
Oh boy, we crashed the site. . Sudden burst of traffic.
I always wonder about those who put question marks after statements. As in the critics comment “Please prove me wrong?”… Unless that sentence is actually a question as “would someone please help me”
He had to end his rant there because the ? key fell off of his keyboard (?)
The Mariners Museum is planning to have the Chris Craft collection reopened in June so until then everything is in deep storage and no getting hull cards or information until then.
I can’t wait for the judges to say something is not original on this boat….
I like the name “NIMROD”!
That makes my head hurt
I tried to read that hull card but all I could ascertain was that it was a 1940 CC model 6 with an MB delivered to Algonac so it had to be over 20′. Anyone interpret all that handwriting. Would actually be interesting.