Never Did I Dream by Sherry Eversole

Never did I dream how much fun Wayne and I would have owning a classic boat. Our adventure started in 1996. We bought a 1964 16 foot Century Resorter from our close friend, Mike Flood. Mike told us, “It only needs a few planks”. We soon discovered it needed a little more work than that. Over the next three years, Wayne spent long hours in our garage restoring our boat with help from our friend, Mike Flood. Without Mike’s help and advise our boat would never have gotten done. I not only watched our boat change over these three years, but also our first daughter, Hannah grew up before our eyes. In 1998 our boat, Everso Old was ready for its test ride on Lake St. Clair. With no interior in the boat, Wayne nervously launched the boat and to his relief it floated and ran beautifully with no leaks. In June 1999, Wayne and I participated in our first wooden boat show at Presque Isle, Michigan. Everyone was so friendly and we met many interesting people. The year 2000 was an exciting year for us. We celebrated the birth of our second daughter, Haley on Memorial Day. In September, Wayne and I, along with our friends, Mike and Chris Flood participated in the pre-cruise event for the MAC 2000. It was hard leaving our girls for ten days, but we had so much fun on the cruise and at MAC 2000 on Mackinaw Island. On this trip we met so many wonderful people, not only from around Michigan, but from around the entire country. Wayne and I purchased our second wood boat in July, a 1955 20 foot Chris Craft Continental. We originally planned on starting to restore this boat this winter, but in September Wayne found a boat he couldn’t pass up. We purchased a 1947 18 foot Chris Craft Sportsman. Wayne and Mike Flood didn’t waste anytime removing all the hardware and flipping the boat over to replace the bottom. This boat is currently in our garage being restored. In July we went on a tour of the Muskokas and participated in the Gravenhurst show in Ontario. Wayne, Hannah and I along with several other boats from Michigan spent two days before the boat show touring Lake Muskoka and Lake Joseph. We had so much fun and got to know many of our fellow ACBS members better. In September, Wayne and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary in Indian River with many ACBS members. On Saturday, we toured the Indian River and Mullet Lake. We had a wonderful dinner at the Hackmatack and to our amazement there were two other couples celebrating their anniversary and one of these couples were married on the same day as us 10 years ago. On Sunday, Wayne and I along with Mike and Sharon Riharb met Jim and Wendy Mersman and another couple to cruise the Crooked River. Jim had introduced Wayne and I to the Crooked River experience last year at the pre-cruise for MAC 2000. Wayne and I had so much fun we had to take Mike and Sharon through the river. Jim and Wendy led the way and we had four antique boats flying down the Crooked River. We got some great shots of the boats power sliding around the corners. Over the last three years, our family has participated in several wood boat shows around Michigan. At each show, we have met so many wonderful people and have had so much fun. Wayne and I look forward to many more fun and exciting adventures with our wood boats.

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