- [Narrator] Boats.

They've been around for thousands of years.

essential for transportation, for commerce, for exploration.

Today primarily used for recreation.

Join us on a journey into what it takes to keep and maintain classic wooden boats.

We'll explorethe craftsmanship, the history and the stories from those who keep these vintage vessels on the water.

- Vintage vessels is made possible in part by -Kozmiuk wooden boats.

Custom wooden boat builder of ore sail and power boats traditionally built with old world craftsmanship.

Born from knowledge passed down through generations.

Custom built and restoration service at kozmiukwoodenboats.com The Grundy Insurance Classic Boat program was born from their family sailing tradition, offering vessels full agreed value coverage, protection from uninsured boaters, marine environmental damage, and search and rescue.

online@grundy.com Pettit Paint Captain's Varnish, available in pints, courts, gallons and aerosol.

This marine grade spray on varnish is made to protect wood from ultraviolet light drying to an amber color.

More information is available online at pettitpaint.com ACBS celebrating 50 years of vintage boating in 2025.

Chapter locations across North America can be found at acbs.org Closed captioning support is provided by Peter Henkel incorporated.

online at chris-craft-parts.com On today's show, we visit a classic boat show in Port Carling, Ontario.

Where we meet up with several owners and their boats.

Then we visit one of the region's prestigious restoration shops, the Peter Breen Antique and Classic Boat Company.

on Vintage Vessels of the Water.

(upbeat music) (people chatter) - So then you gotta resand it all again?

- Well, no, we just, like I say.

Take a large drill bit and then peel it off, right (people chatter) (engine whirrs) - I'm the guy that owns it.

- Yeah?

- All folds up to the little poach, like this.

Look at the instruction, that little manual is the instruction for it.

- Oh, for him.

- Yeah, it's original.

- So you're Hemi Engine.

- [Owner] It's a 265 V8.

- Oh, okay.

So do you run on diesel or regular fuel on that?

- Oh, no, regular fuel.

This is my last hurrah.

He's taking it over on Tuesday.

- Oh, that's hard.

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

- But you know, this morning, come honey, I said, this is our last ride.

- [Onlooker] Yeah?

- I was more emotional than he was.

(both ladies laugh) - It's a 1956, 22 foot, Shepherd.

Made, Niagara-on-the-Lake.

And it's a model, 110S.

The center seat changes it from a 110 to a 110S.

If you got the center seat, it's an S. And it's a V-Drive, with a velvet drive.

That particular one I've had 10 years, this year.

Interestingly enough, I brought it down in Florida and brought it up from Florida.

So I brought it up and then had it redone.

Madam is not very agile these days, so, yes, and this is my last hurrah.

(laughs) Tuesday it's gone.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anyways, it's been fun and life goes on.

- [Interviewer] Nice.

So I hear this is it for your boat.

- Yes.

Our last day.

Yeah, I was more emotional than he was but he's okay.

That's good.

(upbeat music) - I like the axons, they've got what they call, a fiber shoe.

And it's patented.

It's actually a patent.

So, I prefer the ones with the fiber shoe.

These plastic shoes wear out, is really common problem.

But getting any kind of points these days is tough.

Yeah, everything is so.

I can get a a better set, just get 'em on eBay or.

Anyway, you'll get home, you'll be fine for a few more miles.

(engine revs) Now we'll find our dirty points.

(engine revs) Just a second here.

When you mess with points, you can just see if we got spark.

Oh yeah.

(engine revs) Just a little flooded.

- Short wire.

Rev it up a bit, Gerry.

(engine revs) It sounds like it's got a cylinder leak.

(engine revs) All right, shut her down, Gerry (engine revs) - Now, would I have done that?

Take the plug wire off and pull it up so it is a high resistance.

- Yeah.

- It'll burn off.

- It'll burn off, yeah.

- My name is Gerry Lodge.

This boat is a Fay & Bowen.

Double-ended Launch, built in upstate New York, in, around 1905.

I just became a fan of double-ended boats.

My buddy here had one at the time.

And this thing became available, it was a wreck when we found it.

And we decided to undertake its restoration.

There's not much of the original boat here.

There's some of the upper planks, on both sides, port and stern.

Port and starboard, I should say, are original.

But other than that, everything else has been replaced and hardware reproduced.

Right now, it's just a matter of a spark plug.

It needs replacing.

The engine that's in here now is a four cylinder Universal.

Originally it would've been a Fay & Bowen engine, they built their own engines.

But they weren't very reliable.

And we couldn't find one to put in anyway, so we ended up putting in a four cylinder Kermath, which was later upgraded with this Universal four cylinder.

(gentle music) - [Onlooker] Don't even see where the steering is.

Where's the steering wheel?

- Good morning, my name's Murray Walker.

This boat beside me is a 1927 Minett-Shields.

It's 36 feet long and it's highly original.

I think only the upholstery has been replaced in it and a couple of planks in the hull and otherwise, it's just as it was in 1927.

It is a one-off.

There's only one boat that was built exactly this way.

And, to me it's just one of the smoothest, most elegant boats I've ever ridden or had the privilege of owning.

And hope to keep it quite a long time.

I've always admired this boat.

I knew it was out there.

And when it became available, it didn't take many seconds to come to the conclusion that I would really like to have it, if at all possible.

And fortunately, I was able to make arrangements to purchase the boat, back, I think, in probably, 1991 or '92.

So I've owned it a fair length of time and I enjoy it just as much now as I did the very first time I took it out.

It's quite a love affair, I guess, you'd say.

Well, the big misconception with wooden boats, is that they take an awful lot of work and that you must be varnishing every year.

That kind of story.

In fact, I found it to be quite the opposite.

If you take care of the boat and store it inside, in my particular case, I only have a varnish job done, about every 15 years.

This varnish job, which looks quite great, I think is probably 12 or 13 years.

So, the boat will last a long time and be relatively maintenance-free.

In fact, I have to say that the old engines, in my mechanical experience, they're lasting better than the new engines.

There are less things to go wrong.

And so many people have put modern power in a boat, which is great but, I'm finding the motors from yesteryear are working just fine.

So the myth is, don't be hesitating to buy a wooden boat, based on the stories that there's an awful lot of maintenance because if you take care of it, it'll last longer and they're a lot less expensive than purchasing a fiberglass boat these days, so, I think it's a rare opportunity for people to get involved with wooden boats.

And in my particular case, my daughter and her children, they use them regularly.

It's part of a lifestyle that we very much enjoy.

And I wish more people did it, it's terrific.

(upbeat music) - [Interviewer] How long have you owned it?

- Since 1937.

- 1937.

- Our grandfather designed it.

- I remember seeing this boat go on a trailer in Port Washington, Long Island.

He said goodbye to it.

It was driven up to Canada.

I remember.

I was seven years old.

It's one of a kind.

My grandfather designed it for picnics in the upper lakes, Blueberry Island.

There's a toilet in there.

There's a table, you could play cards.

We was children, we all sat on the roof.

- My name is Rob Dilworth.

And this is Makalika.

Makalika is 120 years old.

And she's been on Lake Muskoka for 119 years.

I just fell in love when I saw it, I saw it at the boat show in, Gravenhurst.

And I watched it putter out, as they left at the end of the day and said, gotta follow that boat.

So, about five weeks later, we owned it.

In the early 1900s, there was an engine company in Plattsburgh or near Plattsburgh.

It was called the Lozier Engine Company.

And Lozier, not only built engines for cars but they built engines for boats.

So they had this hull built by Matthews Company, in Ohio.

It was transported up to Plattsburgh and they would finish it, put the engine in it and sell it to the end user.

Completely functional too.

They didn't do anything unless it was functional.

- Yep.

The upper part, all the oak wood, we refinished ourselves.

In fact, my wife Katie did the lions share of it.

Pulling out these grooves in the front.

Every one of these strips had to be pulled out with a hook.

And it was hard, it was like old concrete.

So pulled out all of those strips, one at a time and then refilled them, we got advice along the way.

Everyone is full of advice, to help us along the way.

So filled all the grooves.

And then we sanded down to bare wood and then, I think it was 16 coats of varnish, on top of it.

It was a tough job and we loved it.

We use it for transporting grand babies around the bay, at about two miles an hour.

They love the steering wheel, up here at the front.

The steering wheel doesn't actually hook up to anything.

Originally it did.

It was a very curious steering wheel.

If you wanted to turn that way, you'd turn the steering wheel this way.

So it was backwards.

And it was counterintuitive and my brain just couldn't get to it.

So, we now drive it with a tiller, from the back.

We had a very clever helper, who put it all together for us.

When he did the bottom, he also did the tiller.

From the water line down.

(upbeat music) - I'm Jeffery Breen, from Breen Boats.

We're located in Rockwood, Ontario, which is about 30 minutes west of Toronto.

And basically for the last 40 years, my dad started this company here.

Kind of, it started as his hobby business and he's kind of progressed through the years.

Kind of, one restoration at a time.

Which, over the years, progressed into new builds as well.

So, what we can show you here today is, kind of a bunch of boats at different stages in their restorations and build processes.

- That's right, Jeffery never got any allowance when he was a kid, he made boat parts for me.

And it kinda kept him going, so it's always he's ever done and he's always loved doing it and he's just continued on.

I'm kind of retired now and I come and help him a few days a week.

So I bought my first marina when I was 20 and had a big thing with a whole bunch of stores and lots of employees and I sold all that, 45 years ago.

And I collected antique boats as a hobby.

I always had several at the cottage, in the boathouse.

I kept fixing it up and making a better one and selling it, as a hobby business.

So I've been doing this over 50 years.

45 years, full time.

- This is a Greavette, built in the 1930s, in the Muskoka region.

So, basically it came to us as, what we would call, a gray boat or, like, a wreck.

Meaning that it was, kind of, in the elements for so many years, that the wood kinda goes gray, which is why we call it a gray boat.

And from that point on, we basically take the hull, bring it in the shop, see what we can, kind of, salvage and kinda go from there.

Start replacing frames, one at a time.

Once the frames are all replaced, you kind of connect them together with, like, longitudinal boards, called a keel and chines and gunnels.

What we can salvage of the old boat, we'll use on, kinda, non-structural components, usually in the interior.

For a big hull like this, it'll be, basically a year to get the hull done on the inside and out, all sealed up perfectly.

And then a year to 18 months, depending on the project, to finish it off, with all the interior and decking and hardware, final varnish, kind of, everything in the process.

Started this in October.

So this is basically a two and a half year forensic restoration.

So, I got the bottom all done and planked and now you can kinda see 'em setting the battens in.

Now I have my gunnel rails about ready to set in.

Each part of the process, kinda, takes time, like, a lotta people wouldn't understand how much time.

Like that one piece I'm putting on, has been on and off the boat.

This will be its third time, when it goes on final.

'Cause basically, each time you're setting it in, you want to get it right to the perfect position.

Meanwhile, checking the flow line, like, of the whole boat, so it's gonna flow.

When they were doing them originally, they were, you know, they were just boats and they were throwing them together pretty quickly.

People kind of forget that.

So, we have the luxury of time, to make them, you know, nicer than they were, in a lotta cases.

So yeah, there's a main frame every two feet.

And then, just as they did, we put a subframe in, every eight inches, on the bottom, between each main frame.

Which just makes them indestructible.

Everything is sandwiched at the keel.

We kinda just try and take the time to make each piece as perfect as it can be.

'Cause the less gaps and voids you have, the more structurally, like, bulletproof it'll end up.

Over here, you can see a mockup of the engine that'll be going in it.

So, before the bottom went on, I figured out all the driveline.

So we get that, kind of, placed as perfectly as we can, in there, to show the position of it.

And then we machine our hole through the boat behind it.

And then everything's pretty much as perfect as can be, when you go to install the engine in 10 or 12 months time, likely.

As you can see, the boats are built upside down.

It's just, kinda the easiest way to do it.

So once I get the sides all done, basically finish the boat outside, completely paint on the bottom, varnish on the sides, then we flip it.

Spend probably three months finishing the bilge.

Just sanding, scraping, epoxying, sanding, epoxying.

Quite the process.

And then, like I said, usually around the year mark, we hope to have the hull done and then it'll be another year, plus, just finishing it off and rigging and whatnot.

You can see the original boat we started with.

So yeah, this is, like, the typical example of a gray boat.

There's kind of, not many surviving these days.

Like, as time goes on, they just become rarer and rarer, you kinda come across one.

So, this thing, like I said, we started this project in October and it's now all been cut in sections, as we've replaced each frame.

So, every two feet, I go along and took the shape off it, made new frames, replicated it.

Same with this transom.

If you look at the boat, same exact shape, everything, obviously, the old wood just has a life to it and there's no rigidity left.

So, everything's been saturated in the engine oil, et cetera.

So certain things you just have to replace, for structural integrity.

You know, so there's some pieces up there as well.

So it's all like, the planking was taken off.

The last owner, kind of, started to restore it.

He disassembled everything and just found that the project was too daunting for him.

- That's the transom, so that was where the outboard rudder, which we have all the hardware, goes back on.

And it steers inside, through that hole.

After a hundred years, wood loses its stencil strength.

Swelling and drying a thousand times.

So it gets weak.

You can break it over your knee, where you could never do that with a new fresh board.

So the actual hull will be all new wood.

The bottom and the sides.

But what we do is, we clean up all this wood and use it inside seats, ceilings, there's a million things inside, where it doesn't have to be as structural and it's just as pretty as the day it was made.

So we use as much as we possibly can.

We'll reuse all the seat wood, all that kinda stuff.

Rework it all.

- That adds to the patina, kinda shows its original.

- [Peter] As you can see with the bottom, they're all oil soaked.

The woods just, it's too deteriorated, there's no strength left to it.

- [Jeffery] Here you can see a bunch of the original side planking.

Everything we kinda document as we get to that stage, for authenticity and make sure everything goes back as it was.

- These had fireproof bulkheads.

See, it's all lined with copper.

So if there's a fire, you had a few minutes to put it out.

It was very common for the old engines to backfire and get on fire.

And it was pretty common for someone to get the fire out before the boat burned.

Most of these boats burned.

They were just saturated with oil and gas and, you know, it wasn't a real good environment for safety.

And the early engines, you know, had no flame arresters or any of that stuff.

So they were built for fires.

And to go to a boat show and be authentic and everything, this boat would have that copper lining, would go right back in.

We'll clean that all back up, put it right back on the bulkhead.

- [Interviewer] Wow.

- To a lotta people, a lotta this looks like junk but it's not, a great deal of it is usable.

Far more than you would ever believe.

- So this is, kind of, a traditional new bottom restoration.

We've kinda taken the original frame off, at each two foot interval.

And then we tie it into the original sides.

So you basically sandwich the frame where it meets the side.

Make sure you have overlap for strength.

And once those are all replaced, we put our lengthways keel and chine pieces, they connect them all together.

And now we're in the process of adding our subframes, as we were mentioning, every eight inches.

And those will have boards that connect them to the full length engine stringers.

And that's one of the ways we can make this boat stronger than how it was originally.

'Cause it takes that flex out.

This boat's from the State's, original family, on Geneva Lake, Wisconsin.

And you can see how the keel comes and then overlaps into the stem and everything's notched into the framework.

So once you get the planks and everything epoxied on, it ends up, like, incredibly strong.

Kind of a million locking joints all working together, provide integrity.

This is Ethan.

- Hey there.

- This is his current project.

So he's in the fairing stages now.

So we've got the bottom, kind of, roughly done, it's been all, kind of, epoxied and sealed.

And now, at that stage, we start with the sanding boards, scraping and sanding.

'Cause what you have is, these are like, square planks.

So when you go like this, you can feel the bumps.

So like, that's a low spot, that'd be a high spot.

So, basically, with, yeah, scrapers and sanders, we just have to painstakingly make it smooth, which is another process, is, kinda, hard to imagine the time it takes.

But, it's definitely rewarding, once it's all done.

I think, this is number 20, 21, of our new builds.

So it's kind of a Mediterranean-style, reminiscence of the rivas of Italy.

Each boat's a little different than the last.

We like to, kinda, push the boundaries and find different styles and whatnot.

And each customer, kind of, has their say on what they want at each stage of the process, so.

So this is a new build, number 20, for our shop.

So it's been, kind of, an on and off project, over the last couple years.

Just when we've had time, it's still for sale.

So, the odd time we'll have a boat like this that we kinda jump on, between other jobs.

So this hull is complete on the inside and out.

And basically ready for decking now.

All the main hookups are all done and plumbed in and drive line's all complete.

So, a lot of this boat is, yeah, the hard stuff's, kind of, all done and now it's just, pick the deck configuration and a lotta times, once we get to this stage, we kinda leave it until it sells.

'Cause the customer can still customize it a lot, at this stage.

Yeah, so each boat's different.

So, you gotta make a custom cut water pattern.

So that's made of wood.

Make it as close as I can and then have it fit as good as I can.

Then we send it to the casting shop.

We add a little piece for shrinkage, so that it ends up a little long when you grind it down.

But once it's back, then we just keep fitting the rough casting up and getting it as good as you can.

It's pretty much complete now, it'll come off another once or twice, before the chrome process.

So I'll have another couple chances to look with a light and see if I can get any more perfect.

- One of the big differences between American boats and Canadian boats is, Canadian cutwaters are always solid, fastened on with a couple of bolts, from the inside.

It's a more labor-intensive way of doing it.

But far stronger.

In the States, they use two pieces of metal and put 'em on with a hundred screws.

- [Jeffery] Right here.

- The problem is, it held water.

There's one right there.

It holds water and they don't breathe and they tend to rot and deteriorate first, in there, in the wood.

That's a typical American.

They look the same from a distance but the solid cutwaters are far superior and stronger.

- Yeah, so that's the exact same process they did in the 20s.

All the Muskoka boats all had solid cutwaters.

- This is what they call, a gentleman's racer.

So the rear drive, they were higher horsepower and less seating.

But more of a ultimate sports car boat.

The steering's all installed and it's all mechanical from end to end, same as they did in the 20s.

Just like a sports car today.

I mean, there isn't any Indy race car with power steering, you'd kill yourself.

They're all dragging link and mechanical steering, a real boat, you should be able to feel the rudder.

What it's doing beneath it.

If you put push-pull steering in or ride-guide steering or cable steering, it's like driving a school bus, you lose that sensation of feeling.

So this is, again, it's the labor-intensive way but it's the way that really works the best and last forever.

If it squeaks slightly, you put a little oil on it, it's good for another 10 years.

So the way they did it in the 20s, it's pretty hard to beat most of their processors.

- [Jeffery] And there's nothing to wear out.

- It's very labor-intensive to install it and make it all work.

But once it's installed and it works, it just goes forever.

There's no maintenance.

- And the exhaust pipes will stick out here.

Side exhaust, obviously 'cause this boat doesn't have a transom.

So we call this the duck tail racer because the transom comes to a point.

Typically, you know and it stops in square.

So, again, we try and do each boat a little different.

(engine revs) - Yeah, this is the apprenticeship.

Still my baby.

First one, right.

- Vintage vessels is made possible in part by - Kozmiuk wooden boats.

Custom wooden boat builder of ore sail and power boats traditionally built with old world craftsmanship.

Born from knowledge passed down through generations.

Custom built and restoration service at kozmiukwoodenboats.com The Grundy Insurance Classic Boat program was born from their family sailing tradition, offering vessels full agreed value coverage, protection from uninsured boaters, marine environmental damage, and search and rescue.

online@grundy.com Pettit Paint Captain's Varnish, available in pints, courts, gallons and aerosol.

This marine grade spray on varnish is made to protect wood from ultraviolet light drying to an amber color.

More information is available online at pettitpaint.com ACBS celebrating 50 years of vintage boating in 2025.

Chapter locations across North America can be found at acbs.org Closed captioning support is provided by Peter Henkel incorporated.

online at chris-craft-parts.com