Classic Boat
Kim’s Chris-Craft Sea Skiff By Chris “Seabuddy” Brown
K
im Epstein is shown here driving her Sea Skiff, a single screw inboard Chris-Craft. She named her boat the Blue Angel after her college society’s nickname for the Pi Beta Phi ladies at her college. By the way, Blue Angel is a blue boat with a white stripe and red vinyl interior. All the wood trim is highly finished bright stained mahogany. Much of this is original with cosmetic restoration done to keep her a lively, fun daily driver and showboat. She was displayed at the Antique and Classic Boat Society (ACBS) International show when it was held in Clayton, NY, in 2019. She cruised extensively in the Thousand Islands area of New York during the weeklong show. This was a lifelong “bucket list” item for Kim. As a child, the Thousand Islands were something she wanted to see and experience from her own boat. The Thousand Islands are a group of more than 1600 islands in the St. Lawrence River, sharing the border of the U.S. and Canada. They were a fashionable retreat for the elite in the late 19th century. Today the area is a hub for outdoor activities, home to elaborate island mansions, such as the Boldt Castle on Heart Island and Singer Castle on Dark Island, and retreats for other families’ summer homes and water activities. Blue Angel’s cruising speed runs in the mid-20s with her original engine Chris-Craft marinized Chevy V-8. She is a restored original boat, not a “grey,” 54 August 2020 PropTalk.com
patterned with all new wood. Original parts such as the shaft, struts, propeller, and rudder are still with the boat. Her home port is Porter’s Creek in St. Michaels, MD. She was towed to and from the show by Howard Johnson from Upper Marlboro, MD. Howard has done
The boat’s seller was nicknamed Shoeshine as he ran a shoe store in Fishtown, MI. Her barn trailer did not make the trip home from Upper Michigan. While it had been recently painted, it was not road worthy for the trip home to St. Michaels, MD. It broke in two on the highway while in Ohio. It could not be repaired, so 70 ##Photo by Michael Epstein telephone calls later a new trailer was arranged for and built to become the boat’s new road worthy trailer from a marina in Ohio. So, how does she ride? Great in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and also the open waters of the St. Lawrence River. The Sea Skiff lapstrake of the hull and the vee entry of the boat, along with the rounded chine take wakes and chop easily. She is dry ridsome work on the boat as have several ing and has plenty of freeboard for our other restorers and friends of older boats. waters. She was found in a barn in a cherry Blue Angel (1963 model year) is 24 tree orchard in upper Michigan near feet long by nine feet and one inch, Lake Leelanau. She was a restored boat with 46 inches of forward freeboard with work done by Wayne Everso of and 32 inches aft, and her weight is Algonac, MI, plus others in and around around one and three quarters tons. the area which was the original home of Her trim is solid mahogany with a Chris-Craft Industries. white vinyl foredeck and a plywood lapThis boat, like all Chris-Craft Sea strake hull. She has a power blue hull Skiffs, was not made in Algonac, MI, with a white full-width plank stripe. but in the dedicated 315,020-squareChris-Craft was the largest boat foot plant in Salisbury, MD, which was builder in the world at this time. They built in 1954 expressly for round bilge had plants that totaled just short of two lapstrake Sea Skiff Chris-Crafts, whereas million square feet of production area the other plants made hard-chine boat for wooden boats. They were no longer models. a privately held family company. NAFI Lapstrake boats have each plank had bought out the Smith family in proud edged over its lower sister as op1960. posed to smooth and butted smooth to ACBS hosts numerous events each other plank, which would be called including seminars, workshops, boat carvel planking. Also, the chines of most shows, and cruises to use and enjoy Chris-Crafts are called “hard” or square boats such as Kim’s Blue Angel. # compared to rounded or “soft” chines.