| Tahoe's Wooden Boats |
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Page 1 of 2 Each summer in lake Tahoe, some freshwater fanatics fire up the world’s finest wooden boats  FOR A WOODEN-BOAT AFICIONADO LIKE JEFF PETERSON, the day should have been like dying and floating to heaven. It was last August, and Peterson, fresh off a morning cruise on Lake Tahoe, cradled the polished steering wheel of one of his vintage mahogany boats as he navigated through a collection of docked classic wood craft to reach his berth. But he didn’t like what he saw. “It just keeps getting more challenging,” said Peterson, eyeing the showroom-quality competition at the 2007 Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this caliber of boats here.” Peterson, 46, knows all about setting the boat bar high. Emma II, his 1949 Chris-Craft, and Steinway, his 1929 Hacker Craft, have won more than a dozen restoration awards between them. But that doesn’t mean that their lean and well-groomed owner isn’t hungry for more. “I’m hoping for a first place,” said the Marin County, California, financial consultant, who had reentered Emma II, “again.” Like the hundred or so boat owners he competes against here annually, Peterson fancies a challenge. And the Tahoe Concours is the ne plus ultra of vintage wooden-boat competitions. Nearing its 36th year, the contest began as an impromptu get-together for a few local wooden-boat enthusiasts who were unwilling to switch to cheaper fiberglass boats. Their wood boats were heavy but fast, often having been built to race. And their beauty is unparalleled: What’s prettier than that deep brown silhouette reflecting off glassy water?  Nowadays, the Concours is so popular and discriminating that it turns away a couple dozen applicants annually. About 55 judges are required to pore over every last detail of the restored boats, which were nearly all built between 1920 and 1968 and are categorized into 14 classes. As for attendance, some 5,000 wooden-boat fans pay $30 apiece to walk the two-day contest’s docks, getting close to the owners as well as boats worth up to $500,000. Stand over a pristine, two-tone, torpedo-shaped 1939 Gar Wood, and you feel pangs of lust mixed with nostalgia for the days of such glamorous boats. It’s easy to picture a windblown Marilyn Monroe, cocktail in hand, joyriding in such a machine.It’s no coincidence that the Concours ended up on crystal-blue Lake Tahoe. Back in the 1920s, the 200-square-mile lake that crosses the California-Nevada border was a summer retreat for Northern California’s social and business elite. Parts of the lake, however, were accessible only by boat, and an upscale transportation market was born. Lake Tahoe’s dry air (it sits at 6,200 feet) and clean water (it’s fed by the Sierra Nevada) protected craft from rot and destructive algae buildup, which is why today Tahoe is home to so many of the surviving relics. “I have clients who set up trusts for the upkeep of their wood boats,” says Patrick Bagan, a vice president at Sierra Boat Company, which owns the marina in Lake Tahoe’s Carnelian Bay, where the Concours is held. “In some families, I’m actually working with a third generation.” Peterson isn’t Bay Area blue blood but, rather, a sentimental Minnesotan. He grew up on Bay Lake, in the central part of the state, water-skiing, boating, and hanging out with his grandmother, whose middle name was Emma, each summer. He fell in love with the locals’ old wood boats the way other teenagers fall in love with Ferraris or Fender Stratocasters. When Peterson made it in the world of finance—he’s now a partner at a San Francisco firm—he bought the Chris-Craft Sportsman from a Minnesota restorer and christened it Emma II. The first owners were a Wisconsin couple who had bought it new in 1949 to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. The boat, which is identical to the model Henry Fonda skippered in On Golden Pond, had been idle for 36 years when Peterson bought it in what he calls “incredible condition.” Seven years later, in 1999, he purchased Steinway, which he stores in a custom-built two-story garage next to his home. The garage was constructed and decorated to resemble an old-time boathouse. Oh, and there’s also room for his silverstone gray 2007 Ferrari. “I’m a sick puppy,” he admits. |
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