Press Release — Friday, March 5, 2010
For Information Call Anne Peterson at 208-373-7368
or Bob Evancho at 373-7369
WOODEN BOATS, WONDROUS LAKES: AN OUTDOOR IDAHO SPECIAL Sets Sail During FESTIVAL 2010
— Airs Thursday, March 11, at 8:00 p.m. MT/PT
— See it in HD Thursday, March 11, at 9:00/8:00 p.m. MT/PT
Wooden pleasure craft make waves on Idaho waters as their numbers afloat grow through restoration, expanded boat shows and even new construction.
Idaho Public Television producer John Crancer follows the wake of classic boats and the people who have taken them to heart on Payette, Pend Oreille, Priest and Coeur d’Alene lakes, and the Snake River in eastern Idaho.
“They cruised Idaho’s lakes more than 50 years ago. Now they’re back on the water in full splendor, rescued from dust-covered garages and farmers’ fields,” Crancer says.
The IdahoPTV production airs Thursday, March 11, at 8:00 p.m. MT/PT; see it in HD the same night at 9:00/8:00 p.m. MT/PT on sub-channel 2. The special is part of FESTIVAL 2010, IdahoPTV’s on-air fundraiser, March 6-21.
Don Hardy of McCall restores these works of art for clients around the country. One of his recent projects that he completed in time for the McCall boat show is a 1939 Chris Craft barrelback run-about.
“It’s probably the most sought-after Chris Craft,” Hardy says. “It has the most appealing lines and it has the largest tunnel home for the rear. If you get back behind the boat and look at it, it looks like half of a whiskey barrel.”
Hardy is one of the founding members of the Payette Lake Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society, which puts on the boat show that includes a cruise to North Shore.
Chapter president Jim Winslow speaks of the special character wooden boats have for him. “They are a living creature,” he says. “They all have a soul, I feel. That’s just why I love them so much.”
The national society gathered in 2008 at Coeur d’Alene for the group’s international show and competition. The event included a cruise down the lake to the St. Joe and another on Priest Lake that floated through the tree-lined thoroughfare to Upper Priest Lake.
“It’s the largest natural thoroughfare between two lakes,” says Kahri Wiggen of Priest Lake, an admirer and restorer of wooden boats. “It just slows you down and makes you appreciate the journey.”
“Emily Robson of Sandpoint says Priest Lake is unique because “this Upper Priest Lake is so untouched and unspoiled and coming up here in a wooden boat, it could be any time — years ago, years from now. You are sort of suspended in time when you do this.”
Back in Coeur d’Alene, crowds come down to the dock to view the restored boats that shine with polished wood and brass.
“Some of these boats go back to the 1920s,” says BK Powell, of Spokane, Washington. “Recreational boating is something that basically started in the ’20s.” He calls these early craft the “alpha boats.”
One boat in the show is making a return trip to Idaho after a complete restoration by a family in Hawaii. The Hapike, a 1941 commuter, is one of 13 built and the only one known to be in existence today. It was delivered to Sandpoint on Lake Pend Oreille to the town’s mayor, Pike Moon and his wife, Hazel. The Moons’ descendents and relatives still in the Sandpoint area share memories of the vessel.
“We’d be up in the hay fields a mile and a half away from the boat house and putting up hay bales and stuff and we’d hear this big rumble going on down below and it was granddad starting the boat up,” says Ken Littlefield. “And when we heard that everybody dropped whatever we were doing and made a bee-line for the boat house because we knew we were going to get another good ride.”
Although the family no longer owns the Hapike, some of the Moons are regular participants in Sandpoint’s annual wooden boat show with its popular boat parade led by the fire boat.
“There is just something so unique about the classic wooden boats and the roar of the engines and the beauty of the wood,” Susan Moon says. “I really think it brings families together and it is really neat to have it on Pend Oreille here.”
Curt Molten of Snake River Wooden Boats, Inc. in Idaho Falls uses cedar wood to build new canoes, kayaks and drift boats, including a wheel chair accessible drift boat with a folding ramp in back. “I just grabbed hold of the challenge. Can it be done? How would you do it?” says the retired civil engineer who spent 25 years working in shipbuilding in Virginia.
Kenly Bitton of Swan Valley on the South Fork of the Snake River has built his own wooden drift boat and sings the praises of the wooden construction. “I can feel the water going under me to the side of me, wherever it might be, just through the seat.”
For Bob Drexler of Idaho Falls, it is back to the past. He is the original owner of a 1963 Thompson Seacoaster that he takes cruising on the Sanke River through the city’s downtown. “It’s just total relaxation. It’s a different environment. You can swing and sway, left and right, slow down and go faster, not much traffic,” he says.
Trey Knipe of Boise sums up the allure of wooden boats. “There is something about them that is charismatic,” he says. “Just their rare simple lines and beautiful character — and they are all a little bit different.