Looking For Your Dream Boat?
Here is Chris Wises boat back in the day.
Here at Woody Boater we get requests all the time to find grandmothers boats, or find out what sort of boat this or that is, but this weeks touching story on the Wise Boat co, and great grandson Chris Wise has inspired us to look for more lost boats, family boats, or boats forgotten up in the barn that mom and dad, would love to ride in again. With the reach of the Woody Boater network, chances are we can locate that boat, or better yet. make stuff happen that you may not think possible. So send us your lost loves, your parents boats they had to sell to get you through school. The boat you saw on the lake when you were a kid, and always wanted. You can send us the story at matt@woodybaoter.com if you have a bunch to say. We will be featuring them as stories for others to see.
This should be a pretty easy one since I have some recent details, but not everything.
Growing up on Cobbosseecontee Lake in central Maine in the 70’s there as a wide selection of great classic boats (as there still is today), but one that I would really like to find out about is a Gar Wood triple named Raccoon. I have been told by my uncle that when Gar Wood (the company) started building boats again they took Raccoon there and took her apart to make plans from. As I understand it she was put back together and is still out there somewhere today.
I would like to see a recent picture of her and know more details. (ie what does she have for an engine).
Thanks Matt!
Troy, there is a 1936 28′ Gar triple owned by Art Engel in San Diego. Racoon was its original name. I have the original owners name at home I can post later. Up until recently it was for sale at Sierra Boat for ten years. I don’t think it sold. Larry Ginsburg bought it from the east coast in the early 1990s.
Raccoon originally had a Scripps 202, but Larry repowered it with a Scripps 302 V-12.
That sounds like the one!
WOW! The power of WoodyBoater.
Cruiser or not, the bored recommends you buy it immediately.
Thanks Troy
Wait. For Troy to be interested there has to be more to it, like we’re there a bunch of young ladies in it when he first saw her?
That is for me to know.
No THANK YOU Matt!
This is a great idea. I do not have anything as dramatic as Chris’s great story, because I have the good fortune of caring for and using the boat I grew up with that my parents bought used the year I was born.
My first boat was a 16′ Chris Riviera. The hull card said it was delivered to the Lakeland Marine Base at Lake Hopatcong, N.J. Wayne Mocksfield said there were two 16′ Riviera’s on the lake. His uncle owned one and there was the “other one”. I even went to the lake , found the Lake land Marine base had been condemend and was to be torn down the day after I got there and learned how to pronounce Ho-Pat-Cong but no one was ever able to tell me the name of the owner of my boat.
Thanks Wilson. What a worthy chase!
Does anyone have any information on a 17′ Chris Craft Deluxe Runabout 1947 previously named WINGNUT and owned by a Victor Boehm located in Lutherville Maryland? I contacted him to get some history of the boat but got no response.
I have tried for years to find out what this puppy is. The picture is right after the war on the Scugog river in Lindsay, Canada. Lines similar to a Ditchburn, or Gidley. I think the steering was similar to a Dispro….on the starboard side. I’m sitting in the stern. Dad paid $500 for it and sold it soon after for $800.
Any ideas
I’m going to go with a Duke, but did it have an out board rudder mounted on the transom?
Doug I think that it’s highly It’s highly likely that the boat in your photo was built by Sam
Botting a boatbuilder who operated out of Lindsay Ontario during the first half of the 20th century.
According to Red Bowes of the kingston power squadron the assets and patents of the bankrupt Disappearing Propellor Boat Co. were purchased by a Toronto businessman named Charles Barr in 1927 .Barr made a deal with Botting to build Dispros to fill orders received by Barr at Botting’s shop located on the Scugog river.
Machinery and patterns from the Port Carling plant were subsequently shipped to Lindsay.
By 1929 approximately 130 dis pros had been manufactured at the Lindsay boat works. Unfortunately Barr soon lost his assets in the stock market crash of 1929 .
In 1932, Sam Botting,with help from a young lawyer named Leslie Frost (a future premier of Ontario),was subsequently awarded the residual assets of Barr’s boat company.Botting quickly changed the dispro company’s name to “The Lindsay Disappering Propeller Boat Company” and subsequently produced about 40 more diss appearing propellor boats until late 1935.
In 1936, Greavette Boat Company in Gravenhurst Ontario purchased the rights and patterns for the dispro models and moved production back to muskoka.
your father’s boat was clearly not a dispro but it is constructed very much like one and appears to have decks that look much like those that Botting introduced to the dispro line.
My guess? Botting built this modified version between 1930 owns 1932 to fill orders when his right to use Barr’s dispro patents was in question
Good Lord! The Cobourg kid Strikes again.. WOW
Last paragraph should read ……..My guess? Botting built this modified version between 1930 and 1932 to fill orders when his right to use Barr’s dispro patents was in question…. Dang ornery ipad!
Thanks Kid, BTW, Leslie Frost was a great uncle.
Maybe he got the boat somehow from Frost
What a cool photo Doug.. Anyone out there recognize the make
Does anybody have any info on Beaver Boats built in Detroit Michigan? They were aluminum bottom wood boats usually powered by Ford V-8 60s.
I think Troy cornered the market on those years ago.
This was my grandfathers Chris Craft triple, not sure of the year or length 24′, or 26? used on Sebago Lake, Me in mid 50’s. Would be interested as to where it may have ended up, if it still exists. George Johnson says he bought it and sold it to someone (which I don’t doubt). My grandfather sold it for around $600 in Cumberland Ctr, Me (around 1958?) no idea who bought it. I do believe it had the fold down long rectangular windshield. It had raised coamings around cockpit/engine hatch. You can see the detail somewhat in the picture. I think its ”28 – ’31 vintage.
Ok ok. I’ll play. The boat we grew up with up in Hessel was a 25′ Sportsman of 1946 vintage. It’s still there, in bad shape, but not grey. It just needs everything. And yes, it remains in my extended family.
But today’s story made me wonder. What ever happened to my Dad’s cruisers? He had a 38′ Chris Craft and then a 45′ one. Both were early 60’s models and both were wood. Both were white sided. Both were bought new. As we lived in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, he kept them in nearby Rockport. One was called John and Alex. The other was called JohnAlex. They were named after my brother and me.
I expect they were renamed by their new buyers. And, since were talking 60’s wooden cruisers here, I expect both are long gone. But I’m curious is anyone in WB land ever saw them or heard of them.
Thank you.
68 Resorter FG, Lake of the Ozarks. In 1968,69 I worked for Henderson Marina in Gravois Mills, MO. I was a junior in HS. and ran the Ski Shop. We rented boats, Glastron dealer, Mercury sales and service, a Cypress Garden Dealer, & marine supplies. The Henderson’s rented camper trailer space up behind the Ski Shop. One guy I remember ” Charlie Dye” always came in and paid his rent and kept a old cabin cruiser docked at the water front. The ‘Do or Dye’ was old back then. I went to college and bought a lake home in Gravois and saw the’Do or Dye’ in the 70’s docked and in poor shape. Flash forward to 2014. I took my Resorter to McCormick Marine in Gravois Mills and Bob replaced my bad exhaust manifold. Driving into the Marina to pick up my boat I glanced and noticed a old boat bow sticking from one of his docks. Bob had several woodies in the shop for repair or service. Visiting, I brought up the old cabin cruiser I remembered from my youth. I mentioned maybe it was an old Chris Craft. Bob said “it is sitting in my dock over there” pointing. He said a couple guys from the city bought it and restored it 2 years ago. I had to go look… It looks brand new and it is not a Chris Craft. I do not remember the brand name Bob said it was. Union Electric had 4 of these cruisers to show off the new dam in 1934. The ‘Do or Dye’ was the last one. What a blast from the past. Mark
Are there any wood boaters in the Palm Springs, Ca area?
Pete
Hi Pete, if you are a member of the ACBS..banner on left, there is a local chapter in the LA area, they may have folks there. And the ACBS also publishes a fantastic Directory that can help locate other nuts in your area .
Yes i just forgot to look before leaving home. I thought if I had any time I may look around here.