McCall Boat Works – A Busy Boat Restoration Shop On Beautiful Payette Lake, Idaho

Earlier today Woody Boater broke the news of an incredible multi-boat barn find in the mountains of Idaho. The story came in from Don & Molly Hardy from McCall Boat Works in McCall, Idaho – which is on the southern shores of beautiful Payette Lake. The Payette Lakes are located in the mountains about 2 hours north-west of Boise, Idaho.

I stopped in to McCall Boat Works on my way down to the Lake Tahoe Concours in August and discovered that, in this challenging economy, they were staying busy restoring and repairing old wooden boats. A full restoration of a 1936 Chris-Craft Deluxe Runabout was well under way…

And a classic 1951 16′ Century Resorter “Friday Too” was in the shop to be summerized for the local Payette Lake boat show that weekend – The first wooden boat Don Hardy ever restored…

Casey – one of the guys behind the scenes at McCall Boat Works kindly toured me around the facility as I asked questions and snapped a few photos… Imagine what he was thinking, some guy named Texx just shows up out of nowhere, riding a noisy Harley-Davidson and asks if he can take some photos. After a few minutes, we sorted that out and had a great visit.

One of the other key guys in the shop was Chris, he was carefully preparing some planks for a ’58 Chris-Craft Holiday (shown beside the 1936 Deluxe in the opening shot) that was in the shop for some major restoration work.

“Justice” a beautifully restored 1940 20′ Chris-Craft Custom runabout in for some fresh varnish.

Outside under cover, Casey showed me a 1949 Special Racer that was also in line for a major restoration.

McCall Boat Works recently completed the restoration of “Happy Days” an immaculate 1952 19′ Chris-Craft Racing Runabout owned by Ed Alexander, which won Best of Show at this years Lake Arrowhead show in California and Best Runabout at the recent ACBS Regional Show in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Congratulations to Don, Molly and the crew from McCall Boat Works on their recent success.

Although McCall, Idaho is a bit out of the way for most folks, if you are ever planning to be in the area check it out… you won’t be disappointed. Actually I think the locals like the fact that it’s a bit out of the way, not only is it a great place to visit in the summer, located at 5,013 ft above sea level it’s also a winter wonderland.

Here’s a cool shot from McCall of a summer concert in the park on the shores of Payette Lake… Heck – Just tell the band to set up and play out on that barge, after all, it’s only electricity! Just kidding of course, it looks like a fun summer event…

Image Courtesy city-data.com

To learn more about McCall Boat Works you can click here.

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