Miss I Miss You – Have You Seen Her?

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Missing cleats

Fellow Woody Boater Bryan Crutchfield sent in his childhood memory he is trying to find. She did not have a name he knew about, but you can bet if we can find her, a new name will be found. Do you own this boat? Know where it is?
Here are some great old snapshots and as much history as Bryan can recall.

Have you seen me?

The two little boys on the boat are my friend and his older brother. The boat spent a lot of time on Evans Lake in the Irish Hills area of MI. His brother had it last on either Union Lake in Waterford, Mi or White Lake in the same area and he sold it around the year 2000 +/- a few years. My friend mentioned that you can see when they brought it home it was missing a cleat in the front in that picture with the two little boys. So later his dad just took off the front cleats.

Miss No Cleats?

One picture has the boat registration number so if it’s still in Michigan it may have the same number.

Registration number

Some details that may help

It was 35 years ago and his brother sold the boat after his dad died in the 90’s. I can find similar boats online but unfortunately that one is lost to time.

fun on the lake

His dad had re-powered though with either a 351 Ford or 350 Chevy. I think it was the Chevy. I just remember that thing would snap us out of the water after it got the new engine.

Mirror, speedometer and top batten holders

Padded sides? This feels like a newer interior from the late 60’s?

We could sit on the dock and do dock starts after that and see if we could make the 1.5 mile run around the lake without getting our swimsuits wet. We had as many as 6 skiers at a time behind the boat and used to build small pyramids. Along with tubing on giant tractor tubes, but those would rub our chests raw and those darn stems were killers. I liked knee boards and trick skiing and jumping the giant wake that boat used to throw off.

Get to work!

That is one cool set up

My favorite story is pulling up to their house when I was about 17 and I was excited to see the boat out in the driveway. That meant it was going in the water soon and we could ski after the boards swelled for a week. His dad walked up to me smiled and said,”yep, you’re here often enough” and promptly slapped a sanding block in my hands. It was time to revarnish the boat. Two days later I had a new appreciation for her and a little pride that I had done a little of the work when someone dropped the inevitable compliment.

Miss I Miss You.

 

10 replies
  1. Murdock
    Murdock says:

    Since you’ve got the MC numbers, it’s worth a shot at the MI Sec’y of State. Need to make an appointment these days, but let us know if we can help.
    We visit ours quite often in Cheboygan since our marina has boats coming and going all the time.

  2. Bryan Crutchfield
    Bryan Crutchfield says:

    I should have mentioned to Matt that the previous owner was Russ Holland. The boat was his father, Tom Holland’s pride and joy. Greg Holland my friend is the boy sanding the boat in one of the pictures.

    Thanks for your help.
    Bryan

  3. Mike K
    Mike K says:

    cant help here, but enjoyed the story and the header picture remind me of skiing everyday with the guys growing up
    thanks woody boater
    mike

  4. Steve L
    Steve L says:

    1955-1957? 18′ Chris Craft Holiday. Interior looks to have been redone in the late 60’s or early 70’s. Great all around utility boats.
    Good Luck Bryan. Hope you find her!

  5. Steve Anderson from MI
    Steve Anderson from MI says:

    The 18′ doesn’t usually have the walk thru in the front seatback, so I was thinking it was bigger. Also, there isn’t any crash pad around the top of the cockpit. Otherwise it is very similar to my 18′ Continental. I don’t think it’s a ’55, as the deck strips on a ’55 go under the windshield, typically. Great story! Good luck.

  6. Donbabcock woodboat
    Donbabcock woodboat says:

    The 1955 holiday did not have in side covering boards.this could be a 22ft holiday as the picture shows noboards.a

  7. Mark in da U P
    Mark in da U P says:

    Cool story. Good luck locating her. Internet has been bad at the cabin. Combined with a dead cell phone. Got all that fixed. I’m back on WB again. Missed all you guys. Have been doing a lot of boating though.

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