Well, I’ll start walking that back already. It crystallized everything, that’s for sure.

I was doing research on my grandfather’s boats – he had four that I’m aware of, plus some small tenders, and was trying to find information about older wood Chris-Craft boats.

I had also, in the past, posted some mahogany runabout (mostly Chris-Craft) photos to Tumblr back in 2016/2017.

From Chris-Craft brochure
Later I would learn this was Matt’s (WoodyBoater) restoration “Sylvia” – the “most copied image of a barrelback.”

And at one point I had added a “do-it-yourself” scale model to my Wish List on Amazon.

I was poking around Google Images, and had come across Glen-L. It was an interesting idea of building my own boat. I dug a bit deeper, and stumbled upon the Facebook Group “Glen-L Boat Builders“. That’s where I saw a post from Ted Souhrada, who added 192 photos to the album “Photos of ACBS Show, Geneva Lake, Fontana Wisconsin from The Abbey Resort“

That’s where I saw (mostly) vintage Streblows, Shepherds, Chris-Crafts, Correct Crafts, Centuries, Gar-Woods, Lymans, Hackers and more:

One of the famous Chris-Craft Cobras
Loved, loved, LOVED this 1950 Chris-Craft Custom Sedan “Snowcloud”, owned by Danny Lyons of Chicago – one of roughly 450 produced from 1948-1955. This one was originally named “Minnie”

It was at this point that I saw the prices of some of these beauties, and they were approaching six figures. Plus, they needed lots of care and maintenance, pre-soaking before the season to swell the planks, something that the desert climate and my lack of lakeside property were going to prohibit. Having already been aware of Glen-L, I believe this post was the initial spark in this journey.