Summer Boating
This is the roundabout story about where my dad got the idea to buy a Nordhavn and become live-aboards.
To tell that story, I first need to explain how and where boating started for me. The details go back years in time -- decades before my dad was born. That's why we wrote this post together. Writing this made me really grateful for how much boating has added to my life so far.
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I was just a couple weeks old when I first stepped on a boat -- actually, that's when I was first carried onto a boat. I was born in July -- the middle of Michigan's short boating season. I'm pretty sure my dad wanted our family to get back to our cottage and boating as quickly as possible.
The first few years of my life were spent as a passenger of course. But, as several photos show, I was behind the wheel waaaaay before I could even see over it.
That's a big steering wheel for me, even for an adult. The wheel in this photo moves 25 feet of steel rods, gears in the steering box, and the rudder. A larger diameter wheel gives the operator greater mechanical advantage (i.e. the ability to move all that).
At this age, I wasn't always learning to drive the boats. Sometimes, I just distracted the driver. :)
So what boat am I learning on above? That's where this story begins.
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The Summer Boats
During the school year, I’m a live-aboard, and travel on our Nordhavn. In the summer, we put that boat on the hard and head to our cottage and the summer boats. Summer boats in our family are all classic boats, with one exception: we have a newer Boston Whaler. The Whaler is a well built, practical boat, and we appreciate it and have lots of fun in it. But compared to the others, it's not quite as special. You'll soon see why.
Other than the Whaler, our summer boats range from 50 to 83 years old. All but one are Chris-Crafts and most were made in Michigan.
My dad in "HAL," in our oldest boat, home built in 1938. All the hardware is aluminum: cast, extruded, twisted, or stamped by the builder himself. This boat still has her original 1928 Willy's engine with... get this... a 3-speed transmission and clutch.
So why all the old boats in our family? Well, for starters, our cottage area -- Les Cheneaux Islands, Michigan -- happens to be one of the handful of classic boating havens in the U.S.
This is the marina closest to our cottage. It looks like a postcard with all the old boats. Believe it or not, boats like this come and go all day in our area in the middle of summer.
In fact, Hessel, our cottage’s town, was the location of the first Chris-Craft dealership. Our area was so lucky that the founders of that dealership, the Mertaugh family, stayed in the boating business from around 1930 until 2020 when the last operating family member passed away. It’s amazing to think that the founder of that business sold Chris-Crafts new in the 1930’s that were STILL serviced by his grandkids 90 years later, and are STILL running here, and will keep running here for many decades more!
So that’s a big reason why our family's summer boats are different: our area is full of them.
The biggest reason of all, however, is that my dad grew up spending his summers in this area, surrounded by wooden boats and driving them. When he was my age (I'm 14 now), he was driving his family's 25 ft and 21 ft Chris-Crafts by himself.
That’s how he first fell in love with boating. And, as he's often told me, a parent desperately wants to share and pass on their own joys and strong passions to their kids.
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When my dad was my age, the wooden boats he grew up with in our area were just considered old, not classics yet. They were well past their intended short life spans. Few were fussed over or babied. Most were thought of and used more like station wagons, minivans, or pickup trucks. Luggage was hauled to and from island cottages in them, and garbage was hauled in them from those cottages to dumpsters on the mainland.
Few (if any) had their flagpoles meaning few (if any) had stern lights. But people back then didn't wear seatbelts or bike helmets and many more smoked, so I guess that fits... And when the wood bottoms became soft, the boats were burned. Think about that. Even boats worth $200,000 or more today were being piled up and burned as recently as 40 years ago. That all changed in the late 1970s. Suddenly, owners in our area began to see their boats like family and they began to be saved. The late Tommy Mertaugh, a highly talented local restorer, told my dad he flipped over his first wooden boat for a totally new bottom in 1978. Before then, a board was replaced when it went bad, or the boats were left to rot or were just torched.
There’s another reason why so much summer boating in our area and in my family is classic boating. Our cottage is on Lake Huron, which means we are on freshwater. That’s easier in many ways on boats, including fiberglass ones. And because we are in northern Michigan, many of our local boats are splashed in that cool, clear Great Lakes water for just one month or as little as two weeks each year. That’s not a lot of wear and tear. At two weeks per year, it takes 26 years to add up to a full year’s in-water use. So a two-week per year boat can run for 78 years at two weeks per year and only be in the water a total of three years. It's not that simple of course, but you can see my point.
It's an easy life for a seasonally-used boat on the freshwater Great Lakes. "Marion E," our 1949 Chris-Craft 25' Sportsman is our main summer boat. We launch her in early June and store her for the winter mid-September. She sits in the dark all winter in temperatures that can drop as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit, but that doesn't seem to hurt her. I try not to think of her as lonely. Just sleeping.
There’s one final reason why our family’s summer boats are old ones. My dad really loves the look, sound, feel, and smell of classic boats. I do too. It’s not just that our old boats do these things with more character than newer ones. Each one does it differently.
Not all our classic boats are wood though. Some are fiberglass. The sounds of the classic wooden boats are different from the classic fiberglass ones. I think this is because wood resonates differently than fiberglass. But not all wood sounds the same either. Thin plywood resonates very differently than the thicker plank-on-frame mahogany of the bigger boats.
Our littlest boat is a 1959. My dad bought her about 8 years ago for us to learn how to drive wooden inboards. He named her "Training Wheels." That's my sister coming to the dock after her first solo.
Each of our boats has a different engine, too. That different engine sound is amplified by each boat's different hull.
This modern 496 cubic inch V-8 sounds totally different than ...
What sounds the best? That depends what you're in the mood for. An idle speed sunset burble? A normal speed ride to get ice cream cones? A short, high speed thrill ride?
My dad recorded some of our engines because he loves to hear them while the boats are stored during the winter months. It reminds him that another summer is coming. Be sure to turn up the volume before you read on. :)
You can even differentiate our summer boats by smell. Because some of their engines are modern, and some are original, they smell differently. The original engines smell of old oil and grease. Not nasty. Just, well, like they have history. Like an old house smells differently from a new one. The modern engines still smell like engines, but less so -- just not "old." I can't explain it any better than this.
The smell differences also come from different interiors. Some have real leather.
Some have vinyl interiors. A few have old, marble-looking floors made of a product called Marmoleum. And one even has shag carpeting!
This summer was my first time driving "Super Fly." Here's a short video.
You make have noticed in the video that that shag carpeting boat has one other fun feature different from the others.
And then there’s the smell of varnish. The smell of varnished boats is hard to explain. My dad thinks it's a lot like candy.
While our family really has fun in our classic fiberglass boats, we agree they just can't match the experience of varnished mahogany. In addition to the classic lines of those older boats, their sounds and smells make a ride in them more special.
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Summer Boating
Summer boating is totally different from being a live-aboard. On the Nordhavn, in the school season months, we travel thousands of miles. But in the summer, we go for “boat rides.” Those might last as little as 15 minutes or as long as two hours. The rides are always local. They start at our dock and end at our dock. The short trips are in the crazier boats -- the ones that offer a thrill ride or make the most noise. The longer trips are in the bigger boats, which are more about enjoying the sights and time on the water than speed.
With boat rides, there’s no course plotting, no engine room checks (though we do lift the motor box and sniff for gas), no weather checks, no tides, no current, no slip reservations, no fenders or spring lines or shore power cables, no unfamiliar waters, and no full days. There’s also no radio or GPS or autopilot or thrusters, no pump-outs, or wash downs, or watering the boat. There’s not even a depth gauge. Summer boating for me is just look up at the weather on the horizon, get in the boat, sniff for gas, turn the key to start up (and in some cases, press a button), and head out.
Because summer boating is about boat rides, it’s also weather-dependent. Rain means no boating. Gorgeous sunsets beg us to watch them on a boat.
Because all our summer boats are open air, most evening boat rides call for wool blankets to keep out the night air chill. It can often get chilly in Northern Michigan on a summer night, sometimes into the low 50’s. When I was younger, I remember the feeling of falling asleep on a clear calm night to the sound and circulating warmth of the engine with one of those blankets wrapped around me. It was bliss.
Our 50 to 83 year old boats might seem ancient. Based on what we've seen boating up and down the Intra-coastal, that IS ancient. After all, in 2038 (17 years from now), our oldest (HAL) will turn 100.
But while our boats are old in years, they really don’t feel like they’re old to me. That might be because I'm only 14 and have known these since I was way younger. I think it's also because we take care of them. And I think it's because use them like they are young.
We don’t baby them. We run them up to full throttle sometimes, we pile our friends and relatives in them, we eat and drink in them, we've waterskied and tubed behind them, we swim off them, we surf following seas and rollers in them, and kids sometimes ride on the bows of them.
Talk about using our boats. In September 2018, my dad and three good friends even took "Marion E" from our cottage down the entire length of Lake Huron -- about 250 nautical miles over two days in a 1949 25 ft open boat! They still laugh about the fun of that trip.
Yes, my dad lets my sister and brother take their friends on the boats too. Soon, that'll be me.
My sister (on the left) and her friends heading out.
My dad says boats that are used like boats cost a little more to maintain and repair, but actually very little more. [Salter here: My brother, sister, and I have never damaged one. Just my dad. Cough cough.]
Why else have them if you're not going to have fun with them?
How Summer Boating Led To Our Nordhavn
My dad tells people I’m the reason he decided to buy a Nordhavn and boatschool me. And he has the photo that captured the moment. Let me explain.
We have a few Chris-Crafts with the throttle control in the middle of the steering wheel. (It’s called a “spoon,” by the way.) I know that sounds weird but the company had been doing that since the 1920’s and continued to do it through the 1950’s. There are two problems with that design, and they are big ones. The first is that throttling up means pushing the spoon downward (and vice versa). Doesn’t that seem backward? Well, it does to some people, and many boats (not ours) have surged dangerously forward when the operator intended to slow down. That’s scary! The second problem with this design is that it is easy to catch your shirt or jacket sleeve or anything for that matter on that spoon and move it totally unintentionally. The result? Again, the boat suddenly lunging forward.
Here’s where I come in. One day a few years ago my dad was teaching me these throttle lessons. According to him, I followed the instructions great. But it was the next day, when he took me out, that excited him the most. He said I remembered what to do from the day before, and did it perfectly without him having to remind me. He was so proud, he took these photos to keep the memory.
My dad taught me and our whole family that we need to make a conscious effort to avoid the spoon unless the operator means to move it. Because we kids have shorter arms, he taught us to “shuffle steer” the wheel from the bottom, and not swing it around from the top, where our arm or sleeve could hit it. He also taught us to use the steering wheel rim or spokes as leverage against the spoon, to avoid making any jerky moves up or down.
This was the "magic moment” according to my dad -- using the wheel spokes as leverage to help move the spoon smoothly.
That’s me years ago, learning to shuffle steer in “Marion E.” Look at that giant spoon in the center of the wheel! It’s the biggest one the company made. (I was told some owners have them cut down for safety reasons. We just can't do that.)
That’s when my dad first wondered if boating was in my nature and how we could build on that. That’s where the idea for buying a cruiser came from. After that, knowing my dad as I do now, it was only a matter of time before he’d choose a Nordhavn.
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I hope you have enjoyed this post. If it’s been your introduction to classic boats, that’s great. We have seen very few on our East Coast travels, making Les Cheneaux feel even more special to us, and making us even more grateful to call this our summer home.
If you like the photos of the area, and are a cruiser, consider looking into getting up to the nearby North Channel. From the East Coast, depending on your air draft, you can boat up here through the Erie and Oswego Canals. We've done that, both ways. It is a wonderful and peaceful experience and far less distance and weather risk than navigating the St. Lawrence.
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P.S. We all make mistakes as boaters. Hopefully not big ones. Here’s a photo of the moment I realized my finger was completely stuck in the steering wheel hole. [Dad here: Fortunately we were near our cottage when this happened. Olive oil eventually did the trick. Otherwise, given that's a hard-to-find wheel, I was facing a tough choice...] 😉
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