Story and photos by Graham Hadley
Submitted photos
It’s not unusual to see row after row of beautiful, new boats on display at Logan Martin’s LakeFest celebration. Dealers put the best they have on display for new and returning customers – everything from tritoons to the fastest bass boats on the lake.
But this year, a group of boating enthusiasts rivaled the new boats on display.
While new boats are beautiful in their own right, few draw the eyes of boating enthusiasts like the sleek lines of a pre-World-War-II , barrel-back vintage wood Chris Craft or the raked fiberglass hull and retro fins of a 1956 Sea Sabre.
The Logan Martin Antique and Classic Boat Show at LakeFest was a cooperative effort between Sam Marston, Paul Zimmerman, Ronnie Lyle, Brett Bell and others to show off their special watercraft and to talk to people about what it means to own, restore and maintain one of these beautiful boats.
Chris Craft Icons
This year, the group had 10 boats on display as part of their show, but the first two that usually turn heads are the stunningly maintained wooden Chris Craft boats. With their distinctive hull lines and wood decking with each plank outlined in white, Brett Bell’s 19-foot 1939 Barrel Back and Sam Marston’s 19-foot 1956 Christ Craft Capri are show-stoppers.
A“This boat is all original. It has been preserved, not restored,” Brett said, pointing out that a key to maintaining that is keeping the wood on the boat around water. “It can’t be allowed to dry out,” he said.
The boats are powered by inboard six-cylinder flathead Hercules engines, and while they are some of the most beautiful watercraft ever built, they do have their limitations. Both Sam and Brett say they are cruisers, with flat rounded bottoms, and are not really built for rough, choppy water.
“We run them on the lake early in the morning or in the late afternoons when the water is calmer,” Sam said.
Alongside Sam’s Capri is a special project of his. He had a matching one-person hydroplane built to match his bigger boat, right down to the wood decking. And though the little boat is not technically vintage, it looks right at home next to the other two Chris Craft.
Not all fiberglass and wood
Tucked in next to the wood boats is Sam’s personal favorite. Its simple metal design might be overlooked alongside the sculpted wooden hulls on one side and the retro-styled fiberglass boats on the other, but he says there is something special about his small, metal 12-foot Orlando Clipper runabout.
“The front plows up when you first start moving before it planes, and you can feel the water bouncing off the bottom of the hull under your feet,” he said.
He bought the boat in its current condition in 2004 from an ad in the Birmingham News. He had Mazda’s advertising moniker, “Zoom,
Zoom!” painted on the boat – explaining he loves the way it moves through the water. “It’s a great family boat. Lots of fun,” he said.
Ronnie and Pat Lyle’s 1952 12-foot Feather Craft Deluxe runabout sits next to the Orlando clipper. It’s metal hull painted a bright, fire-engine red with chrome accents and a matching red Mercury Mk 55 outboard.
It’s a bright, dashing contrast to the Orlando clipper next to it and is just as special to its owners – with careful attention to every detail, including the standout paint job and chrome trim on the Mercury outboard engine.
Retro Fiberglass Wonders
Starting in the 1950s, fiberglass was moving to replace wood and metal as the chief hull component for most recreational boats of all sizes because of its durability, ease and maintenance and the flexibility it gave designers.
That flexibility in design was very much on display at LakeFest with a number of classically retro boats, several sporting curved
windscreens and fins commonly found on cars of the day.
Ronnie and Pat’s 19-foot 1975 Aristocraft is a prime example, with its sliding canopy to provide shade from the sun while out on the lake and its teal on white color scheme.
Ronnie’s father had been a truck driver and delivered regularly to the plants in Atlanta where both their boats were built. “I always wanted one of these,” he said.
He has tried to keep the fiberglass boat as close to the original design as possible, though it is still a work in progress. There was a small fire in the engine compartment for the inboard/outboard that had done minor damage to the fiberglass that he is still working on making just right.
Still, the boat sports both the original Aristocraft badge and the dealer sticker on the side.
Another Aristocraft with similar styling was next in line and also still had the original badge on the site. This one is part of Paul Zimmerman’s collection. His Competitive Upholstery business has played a key role in his love of boats, not only filling his upholstery needs on personal restoration jobs but trading out work to acquire some of the boats in his collection, particularly from Buck’s Island in Southside.
Paul said he picked up some boats in much need of restoration from Buck’s in exchange for doing some work on their boats – an offer he was quick to take them up on.
Two of Paul’s boats at the show have some of the most distinctive sterns of any of the other fiberglass boats there, featuring large fins on the aft quarters. His red and white 1957 Larson Thunderhawk Jr. and teal 1957 Sea Sabre both draw heavily from the space-age car designs of the period, and not just with the fins. The boats are adorned with wrap-around wind screens and chrome trim and upholstery appropriate for the era. His wife, Ann, was quick to point out the teal Sea Sabre is her boat – a project she is extremely proud of.
The last boat in the lineup is another one from the Zimmerman family – a late 1960s or early 1970 orange Checkmate speed boat that has truly been a family project, with much of the work being done by Paul’s grandson, Levi Driver, with help from his friend Hayden Davis and dad, Justin.
“We took it out that first time and had the trim wrong on the motor, then trimmed it out and heard a big boom – our stainless prop was
A mishap the first time it went in the water cost them a prop.
just gone,” Levi said.
Despite that setback, they are well on their way to getting the boat ready to float again, and still adding touches, like a top-of-line sound system, underwater LED lights and other features.
Looking to grow
All of the members of the new Antique and Classic boat group, which now has a Facebook page, are looking forward to the group’s future. Several of them have numerous other project boats in the works, and they are also considering reaching out to vintage boat owners on other lakes to participate in future events.
The members are quick to point out – these boats are beautiful, but are also a labor of love, requiring lots of regular maintenance.
That has been one area where the members say the group has been particularly helpful – networking on which people and businesses are best suited to handle repairs and other work on their boat that are outside the scope of their ability to do themselves.
Sam and Ronnie said they very much hope to make their participation in LakeFest a regular event venue for them and hope to have more people with more boats next year.
