- Boats, they've been around for thousands of years.

Essential for transportation, for commerce, for exploration today, primarily recreation.

Join us on a journey into what it takes to keep and maintain classic wooden boats.

We'll explore the craftsmanship, the history, and the stories from those who keep these vintage vessels on the water.

- Vintage vessels is made possible in part by -Kozmiuk wooden boats.

Custom wooden boat builder of ore sail and power boats traditionally built with old world craftsmanship.

Born from knowledge passed down through generations.

Custom built and restoration service at kozmiukwoodenboats.com The Grundy Insurance Classic Boat program was born from their family sailing tradition, offering vessels full agreed value coverage, protection from uninsured boaters, marine environmental damage, and search and rescue.

online@grundy.com Pettit Paint Captain's Varnish, available in pints, courts, gallons and aerosol.

This marine grade spray on varnish is made to protect wood from ultraviolet light drying to an amber color.

More information is available online at pettitpaint.com ACBS celebrating 50 years of vintage boating in 2025.

Chapter locations across North America can be found at acbs.org Closed captioning support is provided by Peter Henkel incorporated.

online at chris-craft-parts.com In today's episode, we visit a collector of vintage boats in Muskoka.

All right here on Vintage Vessels of the water.

- Hi, I'm Bill Ringo.

We're on Mazengah Island in Lake Rosseau where my wife and I have had a cottage for about 25 years.

We fell, fell in love with the area when we were in Toronto on a work assignment and had the great opportunity to find a lot and build a cottage with Brian Hore, the builder, and Ken Pearcy is the foreman.

So we've been, we've been very fortunate, spend every summer here from about mid May to mid-September.

And this particular summer has gone really fast.

The boat collection actually got started in 2008.

We met Peter Brine, the boat builder at at, at the boat show in Gravenhurst, probably 2006, I guess it was 2005.

We had a chance to go to Peter's shop in Milton.

Really, really liked the quality of what he did boat wise.

Feel very fortunate to have him as a boat builder and also a good friend.

The the, the first boat we did was a long deck launch, which is the white boat Whitehall boat over here.

The name of the boat is Second Wind, and that really relates to having retired a couple of times and, and gone back to work.

So that's the name we put on the first boat.

It's powered by a, I guess a straight eight Chrysler engine from the late thirties, early forties.

Otherwise, given the hardware, the shape of the hull, the length is pretty well a, a perfect match to a 1920s early 1930s ditch burn.

Peter said this is a good boat to have as a starting point.

It, it's, you know, you can take eight, eight people in it or, so it doesn't go very fast, but it cruises extremely nice in what, in rough waves.

It's, it's very smooth.

John, maybe, maybe a bit of a challenge with this boat as if it's windy.

It's not so easy to maneuver, but, but the boat's fun to drive.

It's fun to go for a ride in particularly a little later in the evening when the, the water calms down.

And like I said earlier, you can, you can take the whole family and friends in it.

- Peter Breen is, I think, and other people have told us the same, but he is the number one boat builder in all of North America.

So his attention to detail is like, no, none other.

And we've gone to the boat show year after year and seen lots of examples of other wooden boat.

But he is a craftsman of, of rare ability.

I mean, he's amazing.

His son Jeffrey is following in his footsteps, which I'm sure is very gratifying to, to Peter too.

So we're gonna pass that boat house down here that's over 110 years old.

And it's probably, maybe, is it the oldest one on the island or is that other - One?

I think that would be the oldest, but I'm not, so, I'm not completely sure.

- They have changing rooms where they can change into their bathing suits at their town.

They used to have an old steam engine back in the day that was fit in that center slot.

But they built the deck to, so that then the, when they got rid of the steam engine, let's see, the changing room.

The tall building was the ice house.

So a boat would come and deliver ice for him and put it in the ice house for the summer.

And this over here is another 100-year-old.

I think it's over a hundred years old, down brown with the green roof.

- Good job.

I got a lot of help, thank goodness.

Good job.

- This is a, all the styles and designs of the twenties and teens kind of blended together.

If you look at the Upsweep, for instance here, This curved upsweep, it was a feature that they matched the seats with on all the launches.

It was very common in the teens.

By the twenties, they quit doing it 'cause it was too labor intensive, cost too much money.

So this is a boat we built kind of with the best features of the teens and the twenties.

And even a few things they did in the 1930s all blended together into a perfect launch.

So it's a 20-year-old, really a 20-year-old replica of a 1920s boat.

All done with steam bent ribs the same way they did it.

Real planks all steam bent, like we built like a canoe.

All the features are all Ditchburn launch from the, from the teens to the twenties to the early thirties, all blended together.

The best of the best.

How long did it take to build this?

Two and a half years?

One man, two and a half years.

Everything from the standup self-standing, lumber, seats, wood, great flooring, all the hardware we make, everything in house, every cleat and piece of metal you see in the boat we make, including the lights, the stern glass globe we make, This is a Dan Kidney built before the turn of the century, sometime in the 1890s.

They were a big, a huge boat company up near Grand or Green Bay, Wisconsin.

They, most of their boats went to the west of the lakes in that area.

And this, this came from there.

A buddy of mine bought it at auction years ago and started working on it and realized it was just too much for him.

He, he was from Chicago and did many canoes as a hobby, but he realized it was too much.

So he, he sold it.

And then Bill and Susan were looking for a boat, a little boat to put around the island in.

So they did it.

They, we brought it down and finished it for them.

- This is a double ender, meaning the stern, the bower are just about the same.

It's 23 feet in length, we called it as the sign suggests the boat in the box came from upper Wisconsin.

And, and Dan Kidney and his son built a number of duck, I guess duck hunting boats in the, the late 19th, early 20th century.

They did build some power boats.

Peter's done one actually that was really, I think probably 35 or 40 feet in length.

This one Peter found in Chicago through a friend of his.

And it literally was a boat in the box.

And, and I remember Peter calling one day and saying, Hey, we got this boat.

It'd be just a perfect end of the collection.

Kind of a putt putt boat with a bell on the front for the grandkids.

Two steering wheels.

So one can sit by the engine and one can sit up front guide the boat doesn't go very fast.

Maybe seven or eight miles an hour, but, so you wouldn't take a long trip.

But it's fun to go around the island.

It has about a, I guess a 40 horsepower motor maybe, if that it, it, it is just one of those boats that it is fun to be in.

And, and the name comes from the military and it is a, a different point in time when speed's not, not the most important thing on your mind.

- These boats are the best for going near shore.

Like in the evening, watching the sunset, you can get real close to shore where you can't do it with a big expensive coat.

So in the turn of the century, he saw had single cylinder, they had single cylinder pu engines and you had to, no starters weren't invented yet, so you had to start 'em by hand.

They were very reliable, but they were greasy and oily.

That's why there's no motor box.

You had to do the oiling yourself.

You had to turn the grease fittings down every five minutes or so.

So later on in life they all got repowered with a little bit more modern, this is the 1938 or 39 gray marine.

They don't, - We had a work assignment in Toronto in the late, late eighties.

And that's when we first discovered Muskoka.

We thought, boy, if we could have a place here someday, it'd be great.

We had the good fortune of meeting Brian Hoar a builder, Ken Pearcy his foreman.

And we used David Gillette from Orillia, as the architect.

The three worked extremely well together.

We basically built the cottage via email and text.

Because we lived in Indiana.

Three of them were all, were all up here, but it turned out really well.

And it's been a, it's been great.

After 25 years, we still are pleased with, with the way the cottage looks, the location and still have a good friendship with, with Brian, with David and with Ken.

After we did the boathouse and after we saw the work that, that Peter's done as a boat builder, we decided to take the plunge.

That's when we built the first boat with him in two, started in 2006, finished in 2008.

And then we just kept going after that until we had three boats fill the boathouse with what we think are really unique wooden boats and hopefully at some point add a little bit to the lower Muskoka and the quality of the wooden boats that have been here.

I think for at least the last 100 years.

- The gentleman's racers today are the, they, they perform in the twenties.

They set water speed records and water that they didn't beat for 40 and 50 years.

That this hall that we're gonna go in next set the 24 hour endurance record on Lake Muskoka by Harold Greeny.

And it held it for almost 40 years at over 50 miles an hour for 24 hours nonstop.

They did it with a 250 horsepower pack of Gold Cup six.

And Harold Greeny knew to do it, he had to fuel the boats in less than two minutes.

So he invented the pressurized pump system.

So two guy, they had a fuel barge out in the lake, two guys with a hand crank pump when they saw the boat coming with pump up the pressure and 1 45 gallon drum.

I think it fill the boat in less than a minute.

And he set the world speed record.

It's almost like a windshield wiper in a car.

No, they've never improved upon it.

You know, they went from vacuum to electric and made 'em a little better.

But it's the same wiper.

So these boats, they perform as good as any fiberglass boat out there.

And yet they're a really classy, all wood heavy, stunning riding boat.

They can go fast or slower, any speed in between.

So they're really the, with boat houses being at a premium and it slips hard to get and hard to get permits.

The, the more performance boats like this are kind of what's slowly taking over.

'cause you can replace your fiberglass boat.

You don't need a fiberglass boat.

- Peter is not only the best craftsman in the best boat building in North America, Peter also knows his history and he's fascinating that the details and the things that he knows.

And it's one of the reasons why we love him too, is that he's like a walking encyclopedia for wooden boats.

He's incredible.

It your mind.

Well it's pretty neat.

I'd like to get in that mind - Your mind.

It's pretty neat to, because the customers have always given us the, you know, the wherewithal and that to push the envelope and, and do all this stuff.

Yeah.

And you can see why.

I mean, they got three boats here and they use 'em all.

So it's, it's, it's a process that once you kinda get into it, it's, it's very interesting.

'cause you like the customer's chasing the history as much as we are.

Yeah, exactly.

And the seeding and the colors and how they did stuff and your choice of hardware, choice of this all the way along each month you have choices to make for the month or two ahead.

Right.

So we always communicate and, and it makes it kind of, it makes it a, first of all, customer's really involved.

But second of all, it makes it fun for everybody.

- Well the project was great fun.

He would send us pictures probably every month through the mail.

We get this big packet and we just waited for them all, all the time.

It was like, are we gonna get a packet today?

And it was just great fun.

Yeah.

- We do it the old fashioned way.

We lick a stamp and send a whole bunch of pictures.

Exactly.

We get some of these, some of the wildest guys in North America, they lock their office door and they're secretary can't even get a hold of 'em.

Right.

And they're in there looking through the pictures with a magnifying glass, seeing what's in the background and what's going on.

So you know what, it's one place where the old school technology right.

You can't beat it.

You can sit and look at a photo and get a magnifying glass off on a computer.

You lose it, you can't find it.

It's gone in a year.

So a lot of the stuff we do is still kind of old school.

Yeah.

In that respect.

- And it's great 'cause you can make scrapbooks out of your different projects and it's really kind of family.

It becomes a family keepsake.

- This is, this is the hull is after Gold Cup racer.

It's about 28 feet in length.

It's powered by a V eight V eight engine of about 500 horsepower.

It, it's a great, we we love this boat in terms of being able to, to drive it, steer it, it go you, you put it in place, it goes, it goes straight ride's great.

It's got a lot of, lot of power to it.

The name of the boats after, after a granddaughter - Just named after a granddaughter that I'm tragically was stillborn and yet her twin is with us today.

She's our miracle child and she and her sister Sutton just love Ainsley and her sister Sutton love Maggie Marin.

So they love to go in there and, and that's the first thing they wanna do when they get here is go for a ride in the Maggie Marin.

So, which Maggie means pearl and Marin means of the sea.

So it's our pearl of the Sea.

So it's, it is definitely our favorite boat.

- The hall's a dark blue, which I think you can probably see the, the bottom is red with a white waterline stripe.

We, we love the color with the tan interior.

It, it is just a fun boat to go out in.

And it's a different boat than the long deck launch.

It, it rides a lot different, it's a lot quicker and, and it handles in a different way than the long deck launch.

And it was something that even when we did the first boat, my wife and I thought it would be be a fun project, another fun project with, with Peter to do.

And we had, we had a great time and this was done, we took delivery of this boat in 2013.

So we had two projects with, with Peter during that time.

And we got to know each other really well.

And you were always in some ways sad when the project came to an end.

We gotta turn the switch off there, dear.

Oh, okay.

- Well you know why it's the favorite boat.

It's the easiest one for him to dog.

- That's about as fast as I've had this boat.

That's - Sir.

- And at the end of a run, if you just take the water drops off like that, There's no maintenance.

The boat, these boats will sit in here for the whole summer.

You, you do nothing to them.

But when you come in from a run to get rid of the water drops, if you don't, when the, when the water drops, dries, it leaves a ring of calcium, which is really gets hard to get off.

It builds up.

If you just knock the drop off it air dry, the boat will stay per, there's no maintenance at all.

Like your fiberglass boat, you gotta wax it every year.

Wooden boats, there's absolutely no maintenance of any kind.

- Well, I'm glad all the boats started today.

I'm sorry.

That one boat ran out of gas - Pretty - Minor.

Well, we saw a number of gentlemen racers before we actually built this.

When we went a couple days with Peter and went to people that had one, had a chance to take a ride and a number of, number of those gentlemen racers and thought, wow, this would really a fun, be a fun boat to have.

And, and now our friends like it, it's fun to take them for a ride.

It's a great boat to drive our, our daughter is starting to drive it.

She really loves it.

Our son's driven it a couple of times, so it'll be something that will, will stay in the family for a long time.

John.

- Hi, I am Anne Curley.

I'm the operations manager curator here at the Muskoka Discovery Center.

And through these beautiful doors here at 275 Steamship Bay Road in Gravenhurst at Muskoka Wharf, you'll find all kinds of wonderful Muskoka experiences, things to explore.

- Okay.

We're at the Muskoka Discovery Center in the Grayson Speed Boathouse.

We have a dozen beautiful mahogany boats.

They are all privately owned.

- Hi.

And I'm chief engineer on the RMS Segwun I we're.

Right now we have some issues with our feed pumps and so we're doing a testing regime to make sure that everything is in good shape.

- Vintage vessels is made possible in part by -Kozmiuk wooden boats.

Custom wooden boat builder of ore sail and power boats traditionally built with old world craftsmanship.

Born from knowledge passed down through generations.

Custom built and restoration service at kozmiukwoodenboats.com The Grundy Insurance Classic Boat program was born from their family sailing tradition, offering vessels full agreed value coverage, protection from uninsured boaters, marine environmental damage, and search and rescue.

online@grundy.com Pettit Paint Captain's Varnish, available in pints, courts, gallons and aerosol.

This marine grade spray on varnish is made to protect wood from ultraviolet light drying to an amber color.

More information is available online at pettitpaint.com ACBS celebrating 50 years of vintage boating in 2025.

Chapter locations across North America can be found at acbs.org Closed captioning support is provided by Peter Henkel incorporated.

online at chris-craft-parts.com