Project Chris~Craft

The following was written by my Grandmother for her webpage, Dirt From Gert. I thought that it would be nice to have this on my site as this is part of the history of our Chris-Craft.....

I’ve just been reading my grandson, Bikeboy’s new webpage about the Chris Craft boats. I’ll have to tell you what brought all this on.

Way back when, we always liked to go camping. We happened on a particular spot called Red Bud Park on Putah Creek, near Winters, CA., where we became acquainted with a lot of nice people from all over the San Francisco bay area. We eventually got together and rented this little old resort from the elderly owners, who were retiring. All we had to do was pay the taxes and we had free reign. As I remember, it cost each family $6.00 a year. This was to be our home away from home all summer for quite a few years. It was wonderful.

Dooms day arrived in the fifties when we heard that the valley was to be flooded to make way for the Berryessa Dam. Our precious camp would be gone. What to do. We went camping at lots of different places, but it wasn’t the same. One day our friend Jim came driving up towing a big boat. It was beautiful. It was a Chris Craft Cavalier. This was the plywood version of the boat. It was called “Miss Ski Tow”. He said they were going up to this new Lake Berryessa and learn how to water ski. They took our daughter, Laurie with them. . On their return, she was ecstatic. She said, “Mom, Dad, we just have to get a boat”. We didn’t think that was such a great idea, but decided that we would think about it.

I don’t remember where we got it, but we bought a small red and white boat with an outboard. We painted it black and called it the Black Gnat. We had a lot of fun with that boat.

We eventually moved on up to a 15 ft Cavalier, smaller than Jim’s, but a nice little inboard. By now it was into the sixties and we had joined a water ski club at Lake Berryessa.. Several individual resorts had been established on the lake and we had moved into Rancho Monticello. Best of all they said we could have our own campsite...and all for $60. a year. We built a deck with a tent on it which later evolved into a forty foot trailer. Now, instead of camping all summer we could camp all year. Such camping. It was wonderful. We had a deck overlooking the water and even had our own boat dock right at our door.

This was in the middle of the boating craze. There were boats of every size and description at the lake. One day, one of the neighbors said they were giving up their spot and wanted to sell their boat. It was a nice 1959 Chris Craft, but was in a sorry state. The boat had been bought new by a man named Curly, who had died and then Frank and Bev bought it and really used it. Frank was a contractor in the bay area and Bev stayed at the lake with their four kids all summer. She really used that boat. I can still see her flying across the lake in her Muumuu with her pony tail straight out behind. They kept the boat in the water all summer, and it was used to pull a lot of the acts in the ski shows that the club put on. It had been a glorious boat. But it had been left outside under an oak tree and was full of leaves and dirt. So we bought it and took it home where Bill overhauled the engine, refinished the wood and had it reupholstered. By then, he was retired so when he took it back to the lake it stayed in the water all summer and in the boat garage in the winter.
In 1976 we moved up near Lake Oroville in northern California. We brought the Chris with us, but it has been in the garage ever since, except for one time in about 1990 when my two Bills pulled it out, swelled it up and put it in the lake for one last glorious ride.

After my Bill died, I thought I would sell the Chris. But evidently, nobody thinks it’s worth as much as I do. So when my grandson, Billy (Bikeboy) said he would like to have it, I mulled that over in my head for a while. Then I thought, why not. He is my oldest grandchild. He knows how to work on engines. He knows all about wood so will maintain the hull. I will give it to him. He will care for it. His grandfather would like that. But how are we ever going to get it from California to Virginia...At the present time, that is the question....How.........
I love you Billy, Grandma..