A few years ago my best friend grandfather passed away. He owned a 1962 Chris Craft, among some other boats. The boat has had a semi rough life and the grandmother was going to donate it to a school for restoration. I jumped in and took ownership of the pile of wood and the screaming Chrysler 413 with dual quads.

I turned it into a few year restoration project. Because I have two young children and safety is important at speeds of 60mph on a 20 foot flat bottom boat I decided to have the hull fiberglassed. I also took some artistic liberties and modified some of the design. I removed the laminated bow and replaced it with planks. Additionally the horizontal transome was replaced with a single piece, but the stern was aligned with the new bow lines.

The originally the interior was black alligator with gold trim. I wanted to stay with the gold theme and since my family mostly consists of CAL alumni I went with the BLUE and GOLD theme.

Below you will find some pictures of the restoration. Oh yeah, did I mention yet that when the restoration was complete after 2 1/2 years the boat sank. Luckily it was in front of the families home and my sister was there to take pictures. She is not much of a boat rescuer, but she was able to inform me via cell phone of what was going on. I was 300miles away. No more than 45 minutes after the boat was submerged it was back out of the water. Thanks to BJ's Barge Service (a phone number every Lake Tahoe boater should carry with them at all times). I had the boat delivered straight to a mechanic, who had the engine running within a day. Needless to say I spent the rest of the boating season replacing all wiring, changing the oil 5+ times and performing general clean up.
Well then 3 years later the boat was finally lake worthy again.

Oh, by the way, as you might be able to tell from the title name, I changed the boats name from J.J. to Opa. Opa means grandfather in German. I felt it was an appropriate new name for the boat since I obtained it from my best friends grandfather as well as my father (my two sons' grandfather duh) past away just before I started the project. He would have enjoyed cruising lake in the woody. The boat helps keep him in our memories and provides an opportunity for me to spend time with my boys and tell them stories about their Opa. There are many wifes tales about not changing the name of boats, but I am a strong believer that it is bad luck.
Of course I would do it all over again, but this time I would clean out all the saw dust out of the bilge pumps and not put it on the lake before a the last major snow/rainfall of the winter season.
Enjoy the pictures and as the new boating season. Stay afloat.

 

Here are the rest of the pics to go along with the info above.

 

My dad collects old (prewar) wooden boats, too.

Name changing IS a jinx. I had forgotten about that!

 

Great story and great pics!

 

Gorgeous! Wow!

 

Wow, that's a beautiful boat! Thanks for sharing the story and the pictures with us!

Just out of curiousity, is that your home in the last photo?

 

Thanks all,

Alzilla, it is my families home. One of the great many things my dad did for the family before he passed away.

 

Great storey, I am glad to heart that she wasn't damaged too badly, and that she is up and running again. I also had no idea just how big and beautiful Lake Tahoe is!

 

Beautiful boat. Changing the name is bad luck, but there is a way to do that makes it right. I will find out the proper way to change the name for you and share here.

 

I am generally not a fan of wood boats but that thing is sharp looking!