Member Spotlight-

Brad & Chris Ernst

Living with an avid woodworker, my husband Brad, I was taught to appreciate the hard work that goes into building a wood boat. For the first few times I went to a wood boat show, I didn’t pay any attention to the differences from one boat to another. I didn’t realize at that time that the “wood boat bug” had hit him. It took another year or so of persistent discussions, to convince me that we would take a look at a few boats. When we decided to look at some, Brad joined the BSLOL chapter first to get some information on what to get. After about a year of talking & buying four Bob Speltz books, and selling my Camaro, (ouch!) we decided to look for a ski boat. We decided on that model since Brad has been water skiing since he was seven, and he had taught me how to ski when we began dating. His motto is “live to ski.”

Our first criteria was to find a Chris Craft ski boat with wood decks from the 5O’s era, but finding one was a different matter. Places that we went to that said the boat was “water ready” looked like they did not have any chance of staying afloat for even five minutes. One day we decided to buy a Boat Trader at the local gas station. Amidst all of the “plastic” boats was a 1966 17 foot Chris Craft Custom Ski boat. In the picture we could see that this boat had vinyl decks and it was newer than we wanted, but we wanted to take a look at it anyway.

When we arrived at the seller’s home, the house was packed with people. The seller was having a garage sale and he was getting rid of all his worldly possessions. It seemed he had to liquidate, or give up half of his assets. The seller led us into his garage, and when Brad saw the boat for the first time, I could see the glee in his eyes. Only I could see the subtle hints he was giving that he approved of the boat. On the hour and a half drive back home, we decided to buy it. As soon as we walked through the door, we called the seller and made the deal. The next night we drove through a severe thunderstorm warning to put that boat in our garage.

The previous owner of our boat told us that it took about a week to soak up the bottom before putting it in the water for the first time. He also told us it could take a little more time because he hadn’t used it for two years. We took his advice and put a water hose in the boat the day after we brought it home. Now I did not know a whole lot about wood boats, and when I saw how fast the water was pouring out of the bottom, I was not going to ride in that thing! Brad told me to calm down and he reassured me that it is very common to have that much water coming out. I told him that we should let it soak for two weeks so it will be fully swelled shut to use. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. After about four days of soaking, Brad decided to take the boat to a local lake to try it out.

When we arrived at the lake, Brad saw a couple of friends and told them to come aboard for a ride. We all took off in the boat and were impressed with its performance. I remembered the previous owners tip and told Brad to turn on the two bilge pumps. He told me “No problem Chris, we’ll know when to kick them in!” Not even five minutes later, we started to notice the boat swaying from side to side and its performance was slowing down. I looked to the stern where our friends were sitting and saw water splashing on the backs of their feet. We were taking on water fast! I screamed to Brad to turn on the pumps, but the water was coming i-n too fast. We were pretty far away from the landing, but Brad went as fast as he could. When we got close to the dock, I and our friends jumped into the water - clothes and all - to get more weight out of the boat. Luckily we put the boat on the trailer just in time. It took about 20 minutes to pump all the water out of the boat. We all learn from our mistakes the hard way.

We have now spent six summers enjoying our boat. Brad put a new bottom on and now we don’t have to worry about soaking it up anymore. We entered our boat In the Rendezvous every year since we first purchased it. We have since renamed our boat from Ciao Baby to Try Again. The new name is a constant reminder of my first times of learning to water ski.
 

We have since purchased two more boats. One is  a 1930 custom built runabout with a 1930 Johnson outboard motor. We found it sitting in an airplane hangar outside our town. The original builder was from the area and the guy we bought it from was a good friend of his. The boat is in original condition, and we enjoy using it a few times a year at Brad’s parents’ cabin.

I decided that we needed a bigger boat than the two we have. My all-time favorite boat is a Chris Craft 22 foot Sportsman. I took on the hard task of locating a boat that won’t break the bank. It took me six months of searching on the internet to find the right one. It was a coincidence that this particular boat was in Minnesota. When I called the owners, they told me that two people from out East wanted it, but they couldn’t find a trailer to tow it home. I asked them why they didn’t have a trailer. They told me that it would be hard to store one since they lived on an island on Lake Vermillion. I asked them if we could come up and see it anyway. (I’d never been on an island in that lake.) The journey was fun, and after eating many cookies and drinking lots of pop, we did strike up a deal and bought the boat.

Our 1952 Sportsman is now “under restoration” and will be done (hopefully) by next summer. It was supposed to be just spruced up and used right away, but when you start fixing one thing, it leads to another, and then the whole boat has to be redone. But that is okay, we have more time than money anyway.
 

There is something we both have learned in the few years we’ve had wood boats. It takes determination, hard work, and a love of wood boats to maintain these pieces of history. There is always something to do and fix, but the work does pay off when someone stops by to recall their time with wood boats. If Brad wasn’t into woodworking, and we didn’t enjoy the work, it would have taken us two years to re-varnish a 17 foot long boat.

We really appreciate the help from the boat club, because one person doesn’t know everything. There is a lot of information our members have to give each other. All it takes is to get to know one person; that person will find another, and so on until you have your answer. The club is a good way to get to know one another, and also to see more wood boats. Getting involved in the committees is a great way to know other people and get information in smaller settings.

I am glad Brad had been bitten by the “bug” years ago. It has taken a few experiences to tell me that I had been infected by that same bug too.