Third Times A Charm!

Where to begin..... My grandfather, Robert Wise, loved to travel. He would drive all over these great United States. He drove to Alaska from Florida four times. He would turn left and turn left again. Always ready to go down some new road.  G.P.S. for him meant going past somewhere! He returned to Wayzata a lot to visit his sisters and other relatives, mostly in the summers.  

One particular year in the mid eighties, he ran into a man at a boat show who had on display....a Wise boat.  The showman offered the boat to my grandfather for, as I recall, $10,000. Anyway,1985 was not a good year for a lot of folks, Robert included. So the Cherup remained in Minnesota.

Grandpa Robert's Photo and Handwriting

Sometime 2003' or 04'.....

Grandpa Robert showed me a picture of a boat and said that it was the last Wise boat built at the Wise Boat Works in Minnesota and the only one around that he knew of. I remember thinking that was way cool. 

Wise Boat Works Early 1920's

Wood boats touch the fabric of true Americana. Mention a wood boat, most people conjure up an image of  a boat on the water, the sun bouncing of the bow as it slices though a beautiful mountain lake. Every guy wants a wood boat! Here is one that my grandfather says his dad built. Amazing.


I thought, who is this guy that had a boat with my name on it? What is his name? I want to talk to him. I want that boat!


With the power of the internet, it didn't take long to find an article or two with some general information about this classic wood boat guy from Minnesota who had a bunch of boats. Great. This should be easy. Here is a man who likes to by and sell wood boats. I'll tell him who I am, the great grandson of the builder, remind him of the offer he made my grandfather and buy the boat.


Ring....Ring...."Hello.Yes, I remember your grandfather. Yes, I still have the boat. Yes, it's cold in Minnesota. (Drum roll please....) No, the Wise boat is not for sale. It is part of my collection of  boats. It is a Minnesota built boat and represents the Lake Minnetonka area. Well, it is sort of a museum."  

Who does this guy think he is? First he wants to sell, now he's going to hold on to it. Keeping me from a family heirloom. A museum! Ha. Well, I suppose, if it's someplace secure and dry along with other boats just like it. That's okay, I guess..........


So close, yet so far out of reach.


Fall 2010....


As more and more old publications, magazines and public records get transferred in to the "cloud" of cyberspace, it becomes more likely to pick up a tid bits of information here and there.  I like to search the net every six months or so with key words, like "Wise Boat Works" and "Thomas Harvey Wise". I have found a few old ads and small little blurbs from old newspapers that I will share in another post. History about  my family history is not earth shattering. Then one day....

Mecum auctioneers announce the Warner Collection. 127 boats up for sale in a two day auction in Winsted, Minnesota, no reserve, all boats must go. Boats for sale include Chris-craft, Dodge and ......Wise Boat and Bus Works.  (What they made buses, too? ) Wait a minute, is this the same boat? It has to be. But how come its up for auction, what happened to the deal? Didn't I get first pick? Wasn't I first in line?

Mecum Offers Wise Boat


Ring...Ring......"Hello....yes I remember you.  Yes, it is up for sale.  It's a chance of  a lifetime.  Hope we see you in Minnesota.  Good luck!"  Good luck?  Chance of a lifetime?  What happened?

First a sure thing, then a waiting game and now a crap shoot.


September 16th 2010... Auction day!  

Can you say anticipation? 

I was not able to travel to Minnesota for the auction, but was able to bid for the boat over the phone.  Mecum called me around noon to say that the Cherup would be on the "Block" around 3p.m..

The Wise family was at our son Jackson's baseball game and then got wings with some friends. Around 2:30, we got in the car to head home so I could take the call. So, here we are in our Suburban; me, Maguire, our two boys and two of their friends, driving home...


Ring...Ring....."Hello, are you ready to bid on a boat?"  Holy Crap!!! In the car, now?! "The bid is at $5000, now $8000, now $12K, (how did it jump so fast?)


"OK, I bid 13K"
"No you are $12K" (I don't do this much.)
  
Back and forth we went on the phone, me driving down the road.  Shhh, kids. Focus on the road.


Your bid is at your credit limit. Going, going..... The other buyer folds his arms,

"You bought yourself a boat!"

Woodyboater Photo

NO WAY! WE WON! WE WON! Can you believe it?.....What a great feeling. Wow! Third times is a charm for the Wise family! 86 years after it was built by a Wise, the Cherup returns to the Wise family!

Now I get to go Minnesota and pick up a boat. Only, its in the winter and there is only one route. Straight there and back. No time to wander. Even so, Grandpa Robert would have loved this trip. He would have talked for hours about his dad, his brothers, the boat works and the Swedes that worked there. He passed away in late 2009.  He missed the boat by one year! 

Now that the Cherup is back in the Wise family, awaiting for her debut at the upcoming Lake Dora Boat Show, her hull soaking up the humid Florida air, I would like to say thank you to that boat collector from Minnesota.  

Three Wise Men, Cherup and the Boat Guru

F. Todd Warner, you have probably bought and sold more boats than were every produced by the Wise Boat Works, know more about wood boats than most people and own some of  the coolest woodys on the planet.  For me, the best thing you have done is help keep my family history alive and provide us an opportunity to reconnect with it and share it with this generation of Wises'.  Thanks, Todd!

  

Wise Boat Works Wins Bid For New Launch!

From the Standing Committee on Purchases.

Minneapolis. Minn.. March 6, 1914. To the Honorable Board of Park Commissioners:

Gentlemen: Your Standing Committee on Purchases respectfully reports that the Superintendent has asked for quotations for the construction of a launch to be used on Lake Harriet or Lake Calhoun, upon the same specifications as were used in the construction of the present boat on Lake Harriet.

The following bids were received:  

Wise Boat Works, Wayzata, Minn.$1975.00 

Ramaley Boat Co., Wayzata, Minn. $2361.68 

Racine, Truscott & Shell Lake

Boat Co. Muskegon, Mich $3000.00

Your committee recommends that the proper officers of the Board, be and hereby, are authorized to enter into a contract with H. J. Wise and P. W. Tibbitts, a co-opartnership, doing business as the Wise Boat Works, for the construction of a launch according to plans and specifications prepared by the Superintendent of Parks and submitted 'herewith.

Respectfully submitted,
H. B.' CRAMER,
JOSEPH ALLEN,
J. W. ALLAN.

Adopted.                                                                                                                                    Committee.

Steering Wheels

Let's talk steering wheels.  Although I have not really had the chance to pilot the Cherup on open waters, I have had my hands on the steering wheel.  It is not in the best shape.  The deteriorated condition of the wheel is hidden by a not so great wrapping of brown electrical tape. Nice!

Mecum Auction Photo

I did some image searches for a 1924 steering wheel, thinking that if Wise Boat and Bus Works built both boats and buses that they probably got the steering wheel from an automobile. Right?  Well, nothing really mathced.

While I was working on the Chase post, I noticed in the picture that the wheel looked different, so did the dash.

Steering wheel and dash appear  to be different than current.

In my email exchanges with Tom Coen, I mentioned this subject to him. As always, he has the timeline on the  installation of the existing steering wheel and some new pictures!  Tom writes:

I have been doing a lot of thinking about the steering wheels. I am sending two pictures from B&W negatives that I just had transferred to a DVD and I have never seen before.  The first shows a black steering wheel very much like the one on the other Wise boat. I never saw this one.  The  picture also shows fluffy cotton tuffs on the mattress and there appears to be a map attached to the dashboard but I cannot read it even if I make it larger. 

Tom Coen Slide from 1939 showing original dash and a Lake Minnetonka Chart (old school GPS!)

The wheel that I remember was I believe a Bakelite or a similar product, a rather translucent tan color and shinny as shown in picture two. 

Gilbert Coen Starting the Cherup in the mid forties (Tom Coen Photo)

That deteriorated and my father used plastic wood to reconstruct the wheel shown in a picture which I sent earlier that was painted red. 

I have no idea why the first wheel was replaced. It appears that the throttle and choke are original.

The steering wheel on the 1920 Wise and Son's 20' launch has a steering wheel that is similar to the Cherup's original wheel.

Black tri-spoke steering wheel.

So what do you think.  Should I refurbish the existing mid forties steering wheel or seek out and find an early to mid twenties black tri-spoke wheel that goes with the original set up?

Wise & Son Advertisement

This is a interesting picture that hangs in a bar in the Hubert H Humphrey Terminal in Minneapolis.  According to Tom Coen, who supplied this picture, the ad is from a 1908 phone book. 

The Coen Years!

As winter cruises along and the holidays come and go, there really is no time to work on the Cherup.  While there seems to be no tangible progress being made on restoring her, there has been progress made on forging a new relationship that is reaping priceless amounts of intangible information that will surely help in bringing Cherup back to her former glory!

I continue to talk to Todd Warner when ever I have a questions about wood boats.  During one of our conversations, Todd told me that he had been contacted by a former owner of the Cherup and he wanted to know if we could correspond.  Email is great!   Tom Coen of Kansas City and I have been writing back and forth, me...asking questions, he...telling stories, we...glowing about our mutual love for an old wood boat and creating a bond between the past, the present and the future.  I can't decide if I am having more fun finding out about my new boat or if he is, telling me about his old boat!

Real Runabouts VI

The following stories and pictures are excepts from the email conversations that Tom and I have had over the past month or so:
 

Purchased by my Grandfather about 1929 as I was told, my father was the primary caregiver for the boat but I helped a lot along the way.  I have lots of pictures and some movies that I would love to share. I was transported in the boat in 1939 when I was not yet 1 year old. I just turned 72 in November. It also survived a tornado in 1939. I know every inch of this boat. In regard to the engine, I watched it being installed at about the age of ten.  The old Scripps was very hard to start.  The only thing major we did to the engine was to have the valves ground. 

We never ran it "wide open" at our summer cottage at Star Island, Cass Lake, MN.  It has a great sound!  I remember going to junk yards with my Father to find the iron fittings for the exhaust pipe.  It served us very well until about 1966. I do not know how it was treated when it left us but I think it could be restored.  Gray Marine Phantom Six. The engine manual was in the side pocket when it left us. This is so perfect for the boat to return to your family.

Gray Phantom in the 1950's (Tom Coen Photo)

I went to the boat auction on Friday October 15th, to see the boat and brought along my daughter Hanna, who had never seen the boat, and my grandson Ted.

It was an emotional goodbye when we left that afternoon. 

 We still go to northern MN where I have The Roamer, a 33 foot boat, the "other Dingle" which has been a big part of my life for 50 years. It is just amazing to think that Mr. Dingle and Mr. Wise probably knew each other and here we have best of friends, side by side, dock mates, the two "Queens of Cass Lake" the Roamer and the Cherup.

Cherup and Roamer , Cass Lake, Mn  1964

Chris, there is so much I would like to tell you.  The electrical system was always 6 volt when we had it.  We never had a bilge pump as we used the nob under the driver seat to open the valve in the back of the bilge. The nob was a check in case something got under the flap of the drain valve. Water pressure held the flap closed 99% of the time.  We used the boat almost daily for the months of July and August and it never leaked very much. The ride is superb!  With the deep "V" it was great.  Cass Lake is the 6th largest lake in MN and we can get some pretty big waves. I remember the Scripps engine as being 115 hp.

Today's picture treat! One of my favorites.  Love the red steering wheel. 

Cherup on Lake Cass in the 1950's (Tom Coen Photo)

The metal plate was to cover up the hole where the double spotlights were removed after it left our ownership. I do not think my family added the lights. They did work and were very bright. But, they are not in the Col.Chase pictures that you sent. Sounds like something Chase would have added. They raised up above the windshield and the shaft went to the floor. It got in our way so we cut the lower part off which accounts for the small piece of gray linoleum on the sloping floor.  I installed that linoleum front and back.  That was a radio on the dash. Never had a key. The black button on the right was the ignition.This picture also shows the green color of the bottom that my father used although I remember seeing a darker green color as probably the original color.

Cherup at rest in the 1950's : Note the spotlights and the lime green bottom (Tom Coen Photo)

Chris, there are two items that are not original but they are about as old as I am.  You mentioned your children. The folding seat in the front was made by my father.  I remember fighting with my brother to sit there very comfortably. 

 Also, the life preserver cabinets in the back cockpit that were made by my father.  There used to be metal liners inside.  They have held up pretty well.

 Additionally, the mahogany strips around the upholstery were made by my father, replacing a narrow aluminum strip with a narrow red insert of the red upholstery material.  He also made the step pads. The stern flagpole is longer in the original pictures.  My father shortened it as he thought it was too long. It looks like the same plastic lens that I adapted from a screw in lens. I attached the spring around the port and starboard light to keep the flag pole in place. 

 
I put the horn on the boat.  Bought it at a junk yard in Cass Lake.
 

First owner, Col. Chase, second owner my grandfather Wilbur F. Coen, Sr. (1929). In 1966, we donated the boat to Unistar, a Unitarian Church camp on Star Island, where we have been summer residents since 1912. The church camp had been given by the Anderson family (M.D.Anderson cancer hospital in Houston) they (Unistar) used it for 2 or 3 years. My cousin Lawrence Coen, now deceased, bought it and held it for 2 or 3 years. Then it was purchased by a professor at Bemidji State University, Bemidji, MN by the name of Charlie.... for 2 or 3 years. Then Sailstar Marina (who may have acquired it for back storage) owner Connie Larson sold it to Todd in 1978, I think. 

Connie Larson and his father Arnold Larson operated Cass Lake Boats and could do anything with wood.  Arnold reluctantly came over to Star Island to help my father install the present transom board and portions of the keel were replaced. I helped pour hot water on the transom board to bend it and often wondered if it would last, but it looks to be in good shape. That board stuck out from the very beginning, it has not moved in all these years!

Thanks to Todd Warner for the fact that the Cherup is still around. . I first met Todd  in 1977 at a Minnetonka boat show. At that boat show Todd thought he paid $2,000.00 but I thought it was $4,000.00. Oh,Todd Warner called me about 1984 or 1985 and asked me if I wanted to buy the boat back for $25,000.00. I believe he told me he had contacted your family in Florida also. 

Stay tuned...Tom has already sent me more pictures that date back to 1939 that show his Mom and Dad with some friends on Cass Lake.  Black and White!

1920 Wise and Sons 20' Launch

I had known for years that The "Cherup" existed.  Grandpa Robert had been offered the boat by Todd Warner around 1985.  In the back of my mind, I was always, one of these days.......

When word got out that Todd was auctioning off some boats, I got a look at the list.  Low and behold,  Todd didn't have one Wise boat, he had two!  It is exciting to know that there are two examples of Wise boats still in existence.

When we went to Winsted to pick up the Cherup, we were given a chance to look around the warehouse.  Much to my surprise, the1920 Wise & Sons 20' Launch was still there.  While in very rough shape, it is still in restore-able condition.  Not a project for the meek at heart! 
 

So with out any more to-do, here are the pictures of the "other" Wise boat.

Picture by Texx

First Look

The Wise Boat and Bus Works 1924 23' twin cockpit runabout. 

Warehouse kept by F. Todd Warner since 1978, The Cherup is a time capsule.

It has not been in the water in over 30 years!

The hull is in good shape with no apparent rotted wood.  The hull seems sound to my novice eye.

The transom has a board that is pulling away from the frame at the exhaust pipe, some work needed here.
The hull has a deep V.  The beam is just 6' but appears very broad at the front cockpit. The keel is six inches wide and runs the length the length of the hull.

 The front cockpit with the fold away step to the right.

The rear cockpit.

The motor has oil in it, the valve stems are freshly ground and the fly wheel turns by hand.  The motor is a 1948 Gray Phantom 6-125. Very big and heavy! I hope she cranks.  

Looks to be a 6 volt electrical system.

The wiring looks like it could use some going over.

The rudder control arm and worm gear.

The bow and the spot light control linkage.

The under dash horn!

F.Todd Warner identified the original dash as an Elgin gauge and a black tri-spoke steering wheel.  These and the window parts are from a Gar Wood boat. The interesting thing is that in the early twenties, Wise was building boats in the Minnesota area, he was also building buses.  Gar Wood started his hydraulic empire in the same area around the same time.  Is there a connection here?

Other elements of  The Cherup that come from other boat builders include the vent scoops and the step pads from a Hacker.  The gas cap is from a Dingle, also from Minnesota.
  
What influences are seen in the hull design?  Warner suggests that the boat is an advanced design for the time.   Did these other boat builders contribute to the look of this boat?  What will she ride like?

Stay tuned......

Will the original owner, please stand up?

May I present to you, Colonial Charles Chase.

Colonial Charles Chase

He was a world traveler, who spent some time in the Wayzata area in the 1920's.

You can't make a trunk look this real.

Todd Warner found these pictures in this trunk, given to him by his neighbor.

Todd Warner's Photo Collection of Charles Chase

Colonial Chase commissioned The Cheerup in 1924 from the Wise Boat and Bus Works.

Colonial Chase owned The Cheerup from 1924 to 1929, he then sold it to the Coen family.

Picture From Real Runabouts VI, Bob Speltz

The Coen's, then the Anderson's owned the boat until 1978, when she was purchase by Todd Warner.  Todd's stewardship of  The Cheerup is a whole other story....Check back for that one!