Style, Stories, History: Why I Collect Classic Boats

Cars were my first love. As a young boy in the 1960s, I spent most days on my grandfather’s used-car lot, the California Car Company, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. My favorite car at that age was a 1948 Chrysler Town and Country Convertible; so much eyeball and style. Accordingly, when I began collecting in the mid-1990s, woodie cars were my focus. The first collector car I acquired was at the 1995 Barrett Jackson Auction, a 1946 Ford Deluxe woodie wagon. For me, it was cabin culture personified and the perfect cabin car for my then-young family of five as we spent our summers on Gull Lake in northern Minnesota. The family woodie was, as I had hoped, the perfect historical addition to the cabin. Fitting, as to know me is to know that history is my territory, and the love of history is fundamental to all my collecting.

My passion for classic mahogany boats goes back, again, to when I was a young boy. I spent summers pulling crab traps on commercial fishing boats on the Eagle River chain of lakes in Wisconsin. Throughout the summer I’d watch the wealthy lake residents speed by in their classic mahogany boats. The seductive lines, the flashing of the brilliant chrome hardware, the deep-throated rumbling of the powerful engines puncturing the Northwoods silence. I was hooked. I told myself that, someday, I would have one.

Fast-forward 30 years, to the summer of 1995, the inaugural summer at our family cabin, Timberstone. The first classic mahogany boats that I had seen in years were those belonging to the Lee Anderson collection. Lee already had an impressive and growing collection of significant classic boats and he would arrive in different boats at the restaurants and functions around the lake. That’s when I really got bitten by the bug and realized classic boats turned my head, spun my youthful memories, and connected me to the essence of what once was.

I didn’t waste much time, quickly purchasing a 1929 28-foot Gar Wood Triple Cockpit. It was in Louisiana, where heat and humidity resulted in the boat needing a complete restoration. The restoration was handled by Mike Mahoney in Clayton, New York, and it turned out beautifully. I still have it in my collection, and while I’m unlikely to ever sell it, I’m also unlikely to return to Louisiana for boat business. These days, I do the bulk of my prospecting in Canada, northern Michigan, New Hampshire, and New York.

Today I own 30 boats, many of which are quite famous in the classic boating world. One of the most notable is Bolo Babe, a 1926 Garwood 33-foot Baby Gar. Baby Gars are considered the “Holy Grail” of classic boats and Bolo Babe is likely the most famous, and certainly most infamous, of the fewer than eight Baby Gars still in existence.

Joining Bolo Babe at Fort Mahogany, my Adirondack-inspired boat museum, are some other boats of note. Miss Algonac, built in 1922, is the oldest existing Chris-Craft in the world; Wyndcrest, a 1931 Purdy racer powered by a Harry Miller Indianapolis 500 straight-eight race engine; and the 2023 ACBS Antique Boat of the Year, restored: Bunky, a 1931 32-foot custom-designed Belle Isle.

Soon to arrive at Fort Mahogany are three new boats. First, Teaser, a 1924 Nevins 39-foot commuter racer, powered by a Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror V-12 aircraft engine. In 1924, Teaser raced the 20th Century Limited train from New York City to Albany in front of millions, beating the train by a significant margin. Second is Horace Dodge’s famous Sister Syn. The 35-foot race boat, powered by a V-12 World War I Wright Typhoon, was built in 1927 for Dodge’s sister Delphine to race, hence the name Sister Syn. And lastly, another Horace Dodge custom build, Lotus, a 1946 40-foot race boat powered by dual World War II Allison aircraft engines capable of delivering 3200 horsepower.

What I love about antique boats is they allow you to experience them exactly as they were experienced a hundred years ago. It feels the same for me as it did for the very first person to ever pilot the boat. When people ask me why I collect, I tell them it’s because few hobbies are so rich in style and stories and history. You can’t travel back in time, but classic boats, whether driving, showing, or simply admiring them, deliver you into years gone by.

The Land O’ Lakes Antique and Classic Boat Society Chapter will host the ACBS International Boat Show, Woods and Water II, at Bar Harbor Supper Club on the shores of Gull Lake in Lake Shore, Minnesota. September 8–15, 2024. For more information, visit https://acbs.org/.

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