Rust never sleeps; nor do fungi.  My first and second posts on this yard are here as one and two;  I’d love to imagine these boats could be restored like this ACF J’Ador III, but mosses and mushrooms are powerful and mahogany though beautiful is vulnerable, and

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with neglect,  hardwood turn soft and planks split apart at the seams once so tight.  Wood that began life in Central America or Southern Asia might turn to dust in North America.

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Beams and structures lose their strength, their integrity . . .  and

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this fleet (1940 Chris Craft 33′ and 1939 ACF)  might never again ride

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or be ridden upon, unless love and dollars get lavished upon them.  Some like

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this Owens get reprieved and

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others (like this 1963 Century Raven) hang in the balance

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although once the wood turns fertile for new life, the

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old one is lost.  These vessels may be preserved only on old photographs, which themselves are at risk of

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leading nowhere if no identifying info is written on the back.  I wonder sometimes as we steer madly into the digital future what will

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become of digital images like mine once computers update so much the old files no longer compatible  are as undecipherable as hieroglphics.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp at Miller’s Marina in Lyons, New York.  Telephone number available on google.

Note: the 1940 ChrisCraft in the second foto above has twin K 6-cylinder Hercules.  There’s also a 1964 ChrisCraft Challenger for sale, last in the water three years ago.  $3000.  I’m just the messenger.

For more boats of this type, check boneyard boats.