|
|
 |
|
| Passion Investments: Yachts |
Mahogany Champions
Michael Verdon
09/01/2004
|
Full Restoration
Condition is the final piece of the value puzzle. In the
context of mahogany boats, restoration can be a fairly loose term, ranging from
simply getting the boat running to turning it into a champion show boat. Over
the last decade, as owners have demanded more exacting historical authenticity
for their boats, a cottage industry of restorers has blossomed around wooden
boat Meccas such as Lake Tahoe in California, Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, the
Thousand Islands in Upstate New York and Mount Dora in Florida. “It’s like other
collectible things,” says Dan Nelson, who has been restoring vintage boats since
the 1980s. “It’s more important to get [the boats] as close to their original
condition as possible,” he says. “But that can be a very detailed process. A lot
of the boats we work on have gotten to the point where there’s hardly anything
left. We replace 90 percent of the wood sometimes.”
H.J. Ludington shipped a
ragged trio of Chris-Craft Barrelbacks (one which his wife found in a barn) from
his lakeside home in New Hampshire to Nelson’s workshop in Minnesota for
restoration. Ludington waited four years for the last one to be transformed into
a show boat. “I didn’t mind the wait,” he says. “I wanted it absolutely
correct.” Ludington is so focused on detail that he has put old Chris-Craft ads
under a microscope to see how the seams in the seats were stitched. Nelson
proved just as meticulous as his client, and now Ludington’s boats have garnered
awards at major shows in the U.S. and Canada.
In this market, detail quickly
translates into dollars. “We bought 12 leather hides for the seats of my 23-foot
Barrelback and had them dyed,” says Ludington. “Just the materials cost $7,000.”
Another owner, who asked to remain anonymous, reports that he has spent $180,000
on the restoration of his antique boat, and it is not finished yet. “If you buy
a triple-cockpit model, you could spend $30,000 just for the hardware,” notes
Schinnerer.
Though such costs may sound inflated, the more historically
accurate boats do fetch higher prices among collectors. “When you can
authenticate parts on the boat, you’re all set,” Ludington says. “If not, the
price starts to drop. If my boats had modern power instead of the original
engines, they’d be worth about half the value.”
“There’s nothing cheap about
historical restoration,” says Schinnerer. “You don’t want to buy a boat with the
wrong hardware or engine. That could really hurt the value of the boat. Take
someone with you who knows his boats.”
Lou Rauh of the Antique Boat Center
in Cincinnati, Ohio, insists on an inspection for every boat he sells. Instead
of marine surveyors, he uses veteran restorers. “They see the early warning
signs: dark spots here or hollow spots there,” he says. His company, which has
70 vintage boats on display at any one time, sells the high-ticket Gar Woods and
HackerCrafts, but his average sale is about $25,000. “Most of our customers want
to use their boats,” he says. “They see them as functional toys, not
investments.”
Then there are the collectors like Ned Dayton, who has kept
Grace B, the 32-foot Chris-Craft cabin cruiser his grandparents bought in 1955.
“It was called after my grandmother, and has been in service at our lake cabin
since the day they bought it,” he says. He had Todd Warner’s company restore the
boat last year, and he plans to keep it in service for another 50 years.
“I’m not doing it for the investment,” says Dayton, “but it doesn’t hurt to
know they hold their values and increase over time.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
