Submarines have existed since 1620, when the Dutch inventor Cornelius Van Drebbel wrapped a boat in greased leather and navigated the Thames 15 feet beneath the water’s surface. Like the original, which Van Drebbel maneuvered with a pair of oars, most subs that followed have been awkward affairs—especially the smaller, one- or two-person models. These […]
Christopher Smith and his brother Hank knew how to construct wooden boats that could turn heads and please their owners, and they built upon that knowledge for several decades. By 1959, Christopher’s grandson Harsen Smith was at the helm of Chris-Craft, which then was operating nine factories that were producing a total of 8,000 wooden […]
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You would assume that the aft fiberglass golden dorsal fin on the Chris-Craft Cobra served some aerodynamic purpose. It did not; it was simply a marketing ploy. “You bought that boat for what it looked like,” says Cobra owner Frank Miklos. “Not for what it could do for you.” Flash back to America in the […]
The Small “Antique Boats” sign on the open metal door is thus far the only indication that this small warehouse on the shore of the Farmington River in Canton, Conn., is the right place, but the scent of wood dust and varnish emanating from within the building reaffirms my hunch. Inside, John Carl, a master […]
Tim Hodgdon reaches into the top drawer of his desk at Hodgdon Yachts, his boat building company in East Boothbay, Maine, a village where lobster traps line dooryards, family dogs nap untethered on porches, and two grade-school-aged sisters tend the general store, which is housed in a yellow Victorian. From the drawer, Hodgdon produces a […]
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