Episode Transcript
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Joy Bork (00:10):
Welcome to Here We Are.
The podcast where we celebratethe beauty of being a nerd by
learning about nerdy things fromfellow nerds.
I'm your host, Joy Blue.
I met today's guest whileworking a show on the road.
We had the same flight backhome, so we rode to the airport
together, had a nice leisurelybreakfast, and next thing I know
(00:31):
I'm learning all about one ofChad's passions.
I found it utterly fascinating,and I hope you will too.
So without further ado here'sChad Durren to talk with us all
about his love of wooden boats.
Chad Durren (00:45):
I'm uh, Chad Durren.
I'm just a computer graphicsnerd that travels for a living.
And does PowerPoint graphics andpresentations for executive
meetings, trade shows,conventions...
Joy Blue (00:55):
like a boss.
Well, what do you wanna nerd outabout today?
Chad Durren (00:58):
Boats.
Yes.
Joy Blue (01:00):
A boat or boats?
Chad Durren (01:02):
All boats in general.
Yes.
Any boat owner, boat enthusiastlikes all boats.
Joy Blue (01:08):
Okay.
When did your interest in boatsstart?
Chad Durren (01:11):
I guess in the bathtub, when I was a kid.
Joy Blue (01:15):
Best place.
Chad Durren (01:16):
yes.
Any kid that sits in the bathtubwith their toys imagines
themself floating in one of thetoys that they're playing around
with.
Joy Blue (01:24):
That's so true.
Chad Durren (01:25):
Yes.
My kids all had little toy boatswhen they were kids and they
always remember'em.
Joy Blue (01:30):
amazing.
Chad Durren (01:31):
Yeah, that's where your adventure starts on a small
scale and it just gets biggerand bigger throughout life.
Your toys get more expensive,gets more complex, but your
boats.
I tell people I could be in a, Icould be in an inner tube on the
water and be just as happy as Iam in a million dollar yacht
because it's water.
I think that's what you're drawnto.
Joy Blue (01:51):
Do you remember some of your first experiences on the
water?
Chad Durren (01:54):
Yes.
And I would have to say it'sprobably fishing with my dad and
my brother.
Joy Blue (01:58):
That's
Chad Durren (01:59):
I have a, an older brother and my father was a firm
believer that you shouldn'treally own a boat unless you
could fish out of it.
Joy Blue (02:07):
Interesting.
Chad Durren (02:08):
we always had canoes or metal fishing boats.
And we started small.
We rode or we paddled to wherewe needed to fish.
And not until probably when Iwas in grade school or junior
high did I start imagining aboat with a motor.
Because I was a lazy kid.
It was a lot of work to paddleyourself across lake to catch
(02:28):
one fish and then paddle back.
And you were constantly seeingother boats that were whizzing
by with motors.
And we were like, why dad?
Why couldn't that be us?
When are we gonna get a motor onour boat?
Joy Blue (02:40):
So, when did you get a motor on your boat?
Chad Durren (02:41):
I would say shortly after that.
My dad always had a motorboat, afishing boat or something with
an outboard engine on the backof it.
And.
It was used solely For thepurpose of fishing.
And I loved fishing as a kid.
That was probably my first,aside from the bathtub, my next
introduction into boating.
There was always an attractionto the boats or envy of the
(03:05):
boats that were, getting to thefishing spot quicker.
I grew up on an inland lake, SoI saw a lot of boats, but when
you get to the age where you'rekind of screwing around with
your friends, you start lookingat boats that are pulling tubes
or skiers or something likethat.
And then your dreaming begins.
But it wasn't until I bought myfirst boat, did I buy a boat
that was fast enough to ski ortube behind.
(03:27):
My father always felt like ifyou're gonna ski or you're gonna
screw around in a boat, you cando it in somebody else's boat.
Joy Blue (03:34):
For better or
Chad Durren (03:35):
go find some friends with a boat, and any
boat owner will tell you.
It's always better to have afriend with a boat than it is to
own a boat because of the workand the maintenance, but I like
that part of it as well.
Joy Blue (03:46):
So one of the things that intrigued me in our passing
conversations on the job wasyour love of wooden boats
specifically.
When did you first get yourhands on a wooden boat and start
playing with that world?
Chad Durren (04:02):
So that was in high school.
And I remember it specifically,cuz my dad bought something that
didn't have an outboard motor.
You didn't have to pull a cordto start it.
You got in and you'd turn thekey, like an automobile.
Joy Blue (04:12):
who
Chad Durren (04:12):
Yeah, exactly.
My dad bought a 1956 Chriscraft.
It was a 22 foot boat.
And on our lake that we grew upin a that's a decent size boat,
maybe too big for the lake thatI grew up on.
And, that's when I learned howto love wooden boats.
The, just the sound of'em thesmell of them.
It's like a piece of antiquefurniture with an engine
(04:33):
strapped on it.
And my mother and my family areheavy into antiques and
collectibles.
So I grew up around the antiquesand there's just something about
the smell of a musty piece ofwood.
Or walking into a barn in thespring and smelling the wood or
smelling, the gasoline from theengine.
And yeah.
I just I was attracted to it andit was wood is it's is
(04:55):
maintenance.
It's sanding, it's varnishing,it's staining.
It's not unlike a piece offurniture.
And because I was already doingthat and helping my mother as a
kid, trying to like, restorefurniture, where my mom was
always dragging home, something,she found on the side of the
road and we would, repaint it orrefinish it.
So this was kind of the best ofboth worlds.
(05:15):
I had a project to restore, workon, monkey around with, and then
put it in the water and enjoyit.
Joy Blue (05:21):
Who supported you along that learning journey?
Like your parents taught you howto refinish.
Chad Durren (05:27):
Yes.
I would say my mom was probablythe biggest supporter in the
sense that she's the one thattaught me how to sand and
varnish and stain a piece ofwood.
And make it look you could, youcan find a lot of things in the
junk or at a flea market or yardsale or in an estate sale, and
you can take it home and you canclean it up, put it in your
home.
She's the one that was kind oflike the, do it yourselfer.
My father didn't own a toolexcept for like a hammer and a,
(05:50):
a bad screwdriver.
He, the basics.
And I was always getting introuble for not returning them
to where, the toolbox where hekept everything, but he was not
very handy.
My dad could screw in a lightbulb and then it ends right
there.
Joy Blue (06:03):
Well, Hey, got thing going for him.
Chad Durren (06:04):
Yes.
If the toaster was broken, myfather was looking for a new
toaster.
And I was looking for thescrewdriver so I could take it
apart or the hammer to bang onit.
Yeah.
so that started the love oftinkering with things.
Why get a new one when you canjust fix the one that you've
got.
Yeah.
And it's just like anything elsethese days.
Older things were built better.
(06:26):
They were built with pride andwith a little bit of love and a
little bit of maintenance, theywould last a long time.
You can go to the store now andbuy a toaster and within a
couple years you need a new onecuz something that's plastic
kind of broke.
Joy Blue (06:36):
Right.
Totally.
Okay.
So backing up a little bit.
For those of us in the worldthat might not be boating
humans, can you auditorilydescribe what a Chris craft
looks like.
Chad Durren (06:49):
When you're in one, there's a feeling that you've
kind of stepped back in time andwhen you're on the lake driving
one, you always get the waves.
You get the thumbs up, you getthe, Hey, I love your boat.
I love the way it looks.
To me, it's and it's not justthe look, they all look great.
Anything that's finished, toperfection varnished with a
mirror shine or a Chrome that'spolished, you can comb your hair
(07:11):
in it, it's always attractive,but it's the sound, it's the
experience.
It's the fact that you can'tjust get in it like a car and
turn the key.
There's a process.
You gotta pump this, you gottaprime this, you gotta turn this
valve three quarters thisdirection, you gotta pump the
gas, you gotta push the button.
You gotta turn this, turn thekey.
They all have kind of like astartup sequence.
(07:33):
That to me, that's just kind ofthe fun of it.
Not everybody can hop in andwant and go.
And knowing how to do something,fly a plane, drive a forklift,
anything that's different thanjust getting in.
You always feel like there'sjust a little bit more of
attachment to it,
Joy Blue (07:47):
Well, it's kind of like the analogy you just used
of the old toaster.
You can go in and look at it andyou can do something about it,
but the newer stuff, it's notanalog anymore.
So what I think I'm hearing yousay is there's a beauty of the
analog of the Chris craft,
Chad Durren (08:00):
Yes, they were not mass produced in any way.
Joy Blue (08:04):
are each of them hand built?
Chad Durren (08:05):
They're all hand built.
Most of the wooden boatmanufacturers were in the
Midwest.
Chris craft specifically wasAlgonac, which is just south of
Detroit.
So there were automobiles beingbuilt.
Model T's and model A's wererolling off the assembly line.
And Henry Ford invented theassembly line where, the boat or
the car traveled through themanufacturing facility and
everybody had one role.
(08:26):
You're the guy that twists thescrews.
You're the guy that mounts theboard.
You're the guy that hammers thenail.
And as it comes out the end, youhave a completed car.
And Chris craft was the firstboat manufacturer to adopt Henry
Ford's assembly line method ofmanufacturing.
Joy Blue (08:43):
Interesting.
Mm-hmm
Chad Durren (08:43):
So it literally came in on pallets of wood,
planks of wood that werehammered to the frame.
And then finished and fittedwith all of the hardware, the
engine um, stained, and thenvarnished with like three coats
of varnish.
And then they left the factory.
So a big day of production backthen was, four boats rolling off
the assembly line in one day.
(09:05):
You know, you think ofautomobiles.
Now, a model of car has,hundreds of thousands of just
that one model.
It's because hundreds are comingoff the assembly line each day.
Back then, big production run ona boat was maybe 1200.
So they're rare.
And when you see one, you'rejust you're privileged to see
something that there are veryfew of'em.
(09:25):
Some of'em didn't survive.
That boat that I was talkingabout earlier that my, my father
bought when I was in highschool, we'd enjoyed it for two
years.
And then it fell into a state ofdisrepair where my dad trailered
across the street and it satunderneath a big plastic tarp
for years.
And I thought to myself, that'sa bit wasteful to enjoy
something for a couple years andthen just let it rot.
(09:48):
And I wasn't gonna let ithappen.
So I started tinkering with itmyself in high school, and
refinishing it with theintention of getting it back on
the water.
So whenever you can takesomething that's broken or in a
state of disrepair and put itback into circulation or back
into use it's rewarding.
Joy Blue (10:04):
What's that process like with a wood boat?
Like if it's rotted that justseems like going into a rabbit
hole that you might never comeout of.
Chad Durren (10:12):
Right.
Well, I like the idea that thereare projects that could be had
on the cheap.
My, that boat, my father, Ithink maybe purchased for$2,500.
I spent like probably threeyears of my life restoring it.
I brought it to Chicago and keptit in Belmont Harbor, downtown
Chicago.
But when I was ready to start myfreelance business, I sold the
boat.
And I sold it for like 11 grand.
(10:33):
So my father, spent maybe$2,500on it originally, but I put
three years of.
blood, sweat, and tears into itwith very minimal investment on
that boat.
Everything was there.
It just kind of needed what wecall in the restoration
business, like a mop and glow.
It was like it needed to beshined up.
It needed to be loved.
It needed to be painted.
(10:54):
It needed to be recaulked.
The engine needed some attentionto be able to start.
Joy Blue (10:58):
let's break it down real quick.
I'm familiar enough with thewood finishing process because I
grew up in my dad's wood shop.
And I have so much respect forthe smell of cut wood and all
the wood smell, things that yousaid, I'm like, yes, I'm right
there with you.
What is the process of startingto strip a boat back to its
essence and build it back up?
Chad Durren (11:19):
I'll use my first personal boat, not the family
boat that I used or restoredpersonally, but was my first
boat was a gift and it was soldto me for a dollar.
The proof of a sale was a dollaragreement.
And it was a wreck.
The shape was there.
The wood was there, but it wasnot gonna float.
Its original bottom from 1952was rotten out of it.
(11:41):
It was a 1952 sportsman, an 18foot boat that I still have and
is still the, kind of like the,my favorite boat.
I bought it for a dollar.
But you take the hardware off ofit.
The Chrome bits, the hardware,the steering gear, the steering
wheel, the gauges, the engine.
Anything That's not wood.
You strip off of the boat.
It gets pushed aside.
(12:01):
Parts that need to be repaintedor polished to you,
Joy Blue (12:04):
do you document that somehow?
Okay.
Chad Durren (12:05):
With photographs, thousands of photographs.
I've never been big on themanual of disassembling
something, or even like mycomputer, if I need to upgrade
Ram or I need to do something,I'd usually just grab a
screwdriver, take it apart, butI have to take photographs.
So I know how to put it backtogether.
There's nothing worse thanputting something back together
and finding leftover parts.
(12:26):
Cause you know that Just
Joy Blue (12:29):
oops.
Chad Durren (12:30):
So you take a picture of it in the form of
where it sits.
And then as you disassemble it,you're taking pictures of how it
goes back together.
So, cause when I restored myfirst boat, I didn't reassemble
it for another six years later.
And by then you have, will haveforgotten everything.
So tons of photographs.
You strip the hardware off, youstrip the engine out of it, and
(12:53):
then you tackle the wood.
And if the wood is rotten,meaning that if there's no
strength or oils left in thewood it doesn't make for very
safe boat.
And in the world of boatrestoration, bottoms, anything
that sat below the water line.
Has a tendency to be dried outand weaker than the rest of the
boat, because that's where itgot most of the abuse.
(13:13):
And that's where the water was.
Uh, Wood is very porous.
So it soaks up water in theseason that it's in the water,
it swells and in the off season,it dries and then it shrinks.
So that's constantly moving andflowing and they're really
sensitive to humidity andmoisture.
And over the years, too muchswelling and shrinking, the wood
(13:35):
gets tired.
The oils leave the wood, andthen you could literally poke
your finger through wood.
So you go around and you take anice pick and you tap around the
wood to see whether something issoft.
And where it's soft, that pieceof wood needs to be replaced.
So they're fastened to the frameof the boat, which are the ribs
and the keel.
Planks are bent into shape orsteam bent into shape and then
(13:56):
screwed to those frames.
So you have to pull thosefasteners off, the screws off
and size up a new piece of wood,fit it to the boat, fasten it to
the boat, and then you move onto the next piece of wood.
And on my first boat, the entirebottom was replaced.
It was all brand new.
And there are some moderntechniques that they didn't use
(14:16):
originally that the life of theboat is really extended.
Joy Blue (14:19):
Fascinating
Chad Durren (14:20):
When boats left the factory, back in the fifties, I
mean, I mean, they've been builtsince the turn of the century,
but mine specifically, as afifties boat was only guaranteed
to last six years.
The bottom of the boat wasintended to be replaced within,
you know, after six years ofuse.
And nowadays you wouldn't buy aboat if you knew they had to put
a new bottom on it in six years,you'd want it for the rest of
(14:43):
your life for at least 20 or 30years.
Joy Blue (14:46):
So how does that play out then if you have old wood
next to new wood, like, doesthat change the dynamic of it?
Chad Durren (14:53):
No.
The hardest problem is trying tofind there were certain species
that wood used in the fiftiesHonduran mahogany and Philippine
mahogany that were used.
And there was a shortage of itessentially ran out of it in the
sixties.
We had chopped down all thetrees in the rainforest to make
boats and.
Yes, it was the war.
Landing craft and PT boats wereall made out of wood and there
(15:15):
was a demand just like any otherin world war I, there was a
demand, a shortage of metal.
You know what I mean?
In world war II, it was ashortage of tropical hardwoods.
Mahoganies that are resistant torot.
So all of the boats that werebuilt with Honduran mahogany
Yeah.
So you're using replacementwood, which isn't readily
available.
There's different species,there's Philippine and African
(15:37):
mahogany.
And you're laying up newerpieces of mahogany to old and
staining them.
Appear like they would'veappeared in 1952.
Joy Blue (15:45):
Staining is just the color.
Chad Durren (15:47):
yes.
And Chris craft uses a specificcolor.
They call it Chris craft red,but there was a number that they
gave it and they stillmanufacture that same color of
Chris craft stain.
Varnishes have developed overtime.
They last longer, they're moreUV protectant.
And that's just to encapsulatethe wood and the grain and
protect it from the elements.
(16:08):
So once you've put your raw woodon there, you've stained it.
You've matched the rest of theboat.
Then you go to encapsulating itor protecting that wood
underneath of it.
So you're basically making ahard, hard varnish shell.
Originally there was only threecoats.
It just it looked pretty, but itdoesn't have the number of coats
of varnish that you see on boatsnow.
And that's just because youdon't want to have to put
(16:30):
varnish on your boat every year.
Right now it's like an everythree year or every six year
type thing.
But back then they used it untilit fell apart and they replaced
it.
Or they took it, haul it to thedump, and or to the bonfire.
Joy Blue (16:43):
That's really sad.
Chad Durren (16:44):
Yeah.
Joy Blue (16:45):
What is varnish made of?
Chad Durren (16:46):
There used to be volatile chemicals but they're
oils from exotic hardwoods thatare harvested and added to the
wood to give it a protectiveshell.
There's artificial ones, sparvarnishes that use basically
they contained SAP.
Joy Blue (17:03):
Interesting.
Chad Durren (17:03):
And they harden over time.
So you can put coat on coat overthe top of them.
But there's now newer coatingsand varnishes that are
polyurethanes or they'reepoxies.
Two part formulas that harden upwhere you're putting a hard
shell.
I prefer to use naturalvarnishes, which are made from
the natural extracts of trees.
Joy Blue (17:24):
That's so interesting
Chad Durren (17:25):
yeah.
Joy Blue (17:26):
In my head varnish was more like analogous to like
laminating a piece of paper,
Chad Durren (17:32):
Right.
Joy Blue (17:33):
but I didn't realize it was natural substances.
Chad Durren (17:35):
Yes.
They were natural substance usedto be in in furniture, repair
shops, a jar that had they werelaquer.
laquer was made from Shelac thatyou added thinners to.
But it was like a hard a hardchunk of like of sap that
solvents and thinners were addedto it so that you could paint it
onto the brush, but old repairshops and antique repair shops
(17:58):
always have a jar of this hardball crystallized sap that they
thin to put over to wood toprotect it.
And it's all natural is an allnatural.
Yeah.
It is amazing.
when you think about it.
Most of the glue, most of theglues and epoxies that are made
are extracted from plants.
Joy Blue (18:17):
I didn't know that either.
Chad Durren (18:18):
There's artificial.
And then there's glues madefrom, trees and plants.
Joy Blue (18:22):
You're blowing my mind right now.
Chad Durren (18:24):
Yeah.
I mean, people had to buildthings.
I don't know when the firstperson to use tree sap to uh, to
build something, but it goesback centuries.
Joy Blue (18:34):
Wow.
Chad Durren (18:34):
Saps and oils and Shellac and all sorts of things.
Joy Blue (18:38):
That's amazing.
Okay.
Getting back on board a littlebit, you told me that you have
redone two more boats sincethen.
Chad Durren (18:45):
I have,
Joy Blue (18:47):
Each of those kind of belongs to one of your kids.
Right.
Chad Durren (18:50):
right?
Joy Blue (18:51):
And those are both Chris craft as well.
Chad Durren (18:53):
yes, they are.
Well, no one of them in themiddle was not a Chris craft.
I've done three differentmaterials.
My father's boat from highschool was a wooden boat
restoration.
My first one that I did myselfwas the 1952 Chris craft.
And that one was wooden as well.
but.
I did an aluminum boat inbetween after I finished that
one.
I thought, oh, I'll never dothis again.
(19:13):
This was kind of one of thoselong painful, it wasn't painful
for me, but over the course ofthree years, I was dumping money
into a project That I didn'tknow that it was gonna be
finished.
And, you're kind of throwingmoney at it until it finally,
the problem goes away.
You put a, you have a list ofitems that need to be completed
before you can Actually goboating in it.
And it was It was a longjourney.
And I thought, you know what,I'll take a break from this for
(19:34):
a while.
But after like two years of nottouching anything, I was like, I
need another project because Ireally enjoyed, you know, my
weekend and evening hours goingout into the garage and working
on it.
So I did an aluminum boat, whichwas probably a little bit easier
than the, I did that one in thecourse of months, not years.
A piece of aluminum that gotpolished, to, with a mirror
shine and an engine attached.
(19:55):
And I had fun with that one.
And I sold that one.
And then I bought a fiberglassboat from the sixties.
And in the mid sixties, Chriscraft had kind of, it was in the
process of phasing out of woodand introducing fiberglass,
which was already being used byother manufacturers for big
cruisers and saltwater boats.
(20:16):
Saltwater is extremely damagingto, all boats in general, but
specifically wood boats are hardto maintain in a salty
environment.
Joy Blue (20:23):
Yeah,
Chad Durren (20:24):
So I bought a rare boat, a 1969, Chris craft
commander super sport.
it's a long name, but it wasChris craft's first recreational
speedboat made out offiberglass.
And, it was overengineered.
They didn't Know the strength offiberglass at the time.
So they made it like threequarters of inch thick, which
(20:45):
was just insane.
It's really heavy stuff.
And the boat is built like atank.
So they put larger power plantsin them cuz they needed to move
across the water.
So they, Chris craft used touse, Smaller six cylinder
engines.
And now they started strappingin Chevy small blocks in them
with a lot of horsepower so thatthey would move faster.
And it wasn't really just forthe need for speed.
(21:05):
It was because they were so bigand they were so heavy, bulky.
And that production run wasabout 85 or 90 boats.
And I have one and I have, yes,they changed.
they changed.
the name of it and called it.
something else in 70.
so, they only made it for oneyear and one year they made like
90 of them.
And then in 1970, they switchedthe name of the boat and changed
(21:28):
a bunch of things about thepower plant and the finishing of
the interior boat.
And then they think they madeabout 3000 of them.
But.
Yes.
Yes.
And that one was my son's boat.
And I always joked with myfriends that were like, how does
your wife let you spend money onthese boats?
And I said, just name'em afteryour kids.
And then your wife will be onboard so,
Joy Blue (21:47):
okay.
right.
Totally on board.
Yeah.
Chad Durren (21:50):
Yeah.
She doesn't have her boat yet.
And I guess I don't really havemy boat yet.
So there's still room for acouple more.
Joy Blue (21:57):
great.
You have a lot of life to liveyet.
Chad Durren (21:59):
Yes.
A kid needs a boat.
Right.
Joy Blue (22:02):
Well, I didn't have a boat.
So
Chad Durren (22:05):
Did you ever, like when you were a kid float a
stick down a mud puddle or adrain or something like that and
think,
Joy Blue (22:13):
what is, well kind of.
Chad Durren (22:13):
yeah.
You had a toy in the bathtubthat
Joy Blue (22:15):
Yeah.
I mean, we always joked thatwhen my dad got a pickup truck,
we're like, what are you gonnaget a boat?
We're not really water family,
Chad Durren (22:23):
Right.
Yeah.
I didn't become a pickup driveruntil I owned a boat because,
because I think I tried to towmy 22 foot Chris craft on the
Dan Ryan behind my Isuzu rodeoand realized that was not a,
that was not a wise decision.
So then my brother's like, you.
need a truck.
Joy Blue (22:42):
There are so many words there.
You tried to tow it on one ofthe busiest highways in Chicago,
Chad Durren (22:48):
Yes.
I'm one of the smallest, mostthe weakest power trains of any
SUV on the road at time.
An Isuzu rodeo.
There's a reason Isuzu rodeos onthe road anymore.
Fell apart or rusted.
Yeah.
Joy Blue (23:06):
I'm really glad you made it this far, despite the
Isuzu rodeo.
Chad Durren (23:10):
Yes.
I've come a long way since that.
Joy Blue (23:13):
Chad, this has been so fun.
Thank you for your time and forsharing with us about your love
of boats.
I learned so much today
Chad Durren (23:20):
Thanks for having me.
I had a blast.
Joy Bork (23:22):
So Here We Are! I learned so much in today's
interview about boats.
Outside of being able to pointat one and say, that's a boat,
or being able to paddle a canoeor a kayak, I haven't had the
chance to learn more about thesepieces of art.
And I am so grateful to have hadthe time to do that with Chad.
(23:44):
Thank you so much for your time,Chad.
If you've got a flavor of nerdthat you want me to celebrate, I
would love to hear all about it.
Go ahead and email me atherewearethepodcast@gmail.com
and tell me everything.
And I really mean it.
I love taking time to sit andmake space for nerd to be
celebrated.
(24:04):
If you really liked this podcastand want to financially support
what I'm doing, head on over topatreon.com, search for Here We
Are the podcast and sign up forone of the many, many
beautifully written supporttiers that I'm really proud of.
So until next time, don't forgetthe curiosity wins.
And the world needs more nerds.
Bye
Welcome to Here We Are.
The podcast where we celebratethe beauty of being a nerd by
learning about nerdy things fromfellow nerds.
I'm your host, Joy Blue.
I met today's guest whileworking a show on the road.
We had the same flight backhome, so we rode to the airport
together, had a nice leisurelybreakfast, and next thing I know
(00:31):
I'm learning all about one ofChad's passions.
I found it utterly fascinating,and I hope you will too.
So without further ado here'sChad Durren to talk with us all
about his love of wooden boats.
Chad Durren (00:45):
I'm uh, Chad Durren.
I'm just a computer graphicsnerd that travels for a living.
And does PowerPoint graphics andpresentations for executive
meetings, trade shows,conventions...
Joy Blue (00:55):
like a boss.
Well, what do you wanna nerd outabout today?
Chad Durren (00:58):
Boats.
Yes.
Joy Blue (01:00):
A boat or boats?
Chad Durren (01:02):
All boats in general.
Yes.
Any boat owner, boat enthusiastlikes all boats.
Joy Blue (01:08):
Okay.
When did your interest in boatsstart?
Chad Durren (01:11):
I guess in the bathtub, when I was a kid.
Joy Blue (01:15):
Best place.
Chad Durren (01:16):
yes.
Any kid that sits in the bathtubwith their toys imagines
themself floating in one of thetoys that they're playing around
with.
Joy Blue (01:24):
That's so true.
Chad Durren (01:25):
Yes.
My kids all had little toy boatswhen they were kids and they
always remember'em.
Joy Blue (01:30):
amazing.
Chad Durren (01:31):
Yeah, that's where your adventure starts on a small
scale and it just gets biggerand bigger throughout life.
Your toys get more expensive,gets more complex, but your
boats.
I tell people I could be in a, Icould be in an inner tube on the
water and be just as happy as Iam in a million dollar yacht
because it's water.
I think that's what you're drawnto.
Joy Blue (01:51):
Do you remember some of your first experiences on the
water?
Chad Durren (01:54):
Yes.
And I would have to say it'sprobably fishing with my dad and
my brother.
Joy Blue (01:58):
That's
Chad Durren (01:59):
I have a, an older brother and my father was a firm
believer that you shouldn'treally own a boat unless you
could fish out of it.
Joy Blue (02:07):
Interesting.
Chad Durren (02:08):
we always had canoes or metal fishing boats.
And we started small.
We rode or we paddled to wherewe needed to fish.
And not until probably when Iwas in grade school or junior
high did I start imagining aboat with a motor.
Because I was a lazy kid.
It was a lot of work to paddleyourself across lake to catch
(02:28):
one fish and then paddle back.
And you were constantly seeingother boats that were whizzing
by with motors.
And we were like, why dad?
Why couldn't that be us?
When are we gonna get a motor onour boat?
Joy Blue (02:40):
So, when did you get a motor on your boat?
Chad Durren (02:41):
I would say shortly after that.
My dad always had a motorboat, afishing boat or something with
an outboard engine on the backof it.
And.
It was used solely For thepurpose of fishing.
And I loved fishing as a kid.
That was probably my first,aside from the bathtub, my next
introduction into boating.
There was always an attractionto the boats or envy of the
(03:05):
boats that were, getting to thefishing spot quicker.
I grew up on an inland lake, SoI saw a lot of boats, but when
you get to the age where you'rekind of screwing around with
your friends, you start lookingat boats that are pulling tubes
or skiers or something likethat.
And then your dreaming begins.
But it wasn't until I bought myfirst boat, did I buy a boat
that was fast enough to ski ortube behind.
(03:27):
My father always felt like ifyou're gonna ski or you're gonna
screw around in a boat, you cando it in somebody else's boat.
Joy Blue (03:34):
For better or
Chad Durren (03:35):
go find some friends with a boat, and any
boat owner will tell you.
It's always better to have afriend with a boat than it is to
own a boat because of the workand the maintenance, but I like
that part of it as well.
Joy Blue (03:46):
So one of the things that intrigued me in our passing
conversations on the job wasyour love of wooden boats
specifically.
When did you first get yourhands on a wooden boat and start
playing with that world?
Chad Durren (04:02):
So that was in high school.
And I remember it specifically,cuz my dad bought something that
didn't have an outboard motor.
You didn't have to pull a cordto start it.
You got in and you'd turn thekey, like an automobile.
Joy Blue (04:12):
who
Chad Durren (04:12):
Yeah, exactly.
My dad bought a 1956 Chriscraft.
It was a 22 foot boat.
And on our lake that we grew upin a that's a decent size boat,
maybe too big for the lake thatI grew up on.
And, that's when I learned howto love wooden boats.
The, just the sound of'em thesmell of them.
It's like a piece of antiquefurniture with an engine
(04:33):
strapped on it.
And my mother and my family areheavy into antiques and
collectibles.
So I grew up around the antiquesand there's just something about
the smell of a musty piece ofwood.
Or walking into a barn in thespring and smelling the wood or
smelling, the gasoline from theengine.
And yeah.
I just I was attracted to it andit was wood is it's is
(04:55):
maintenance.
It's sanding, it's varnishing,it's staining.
It's not unlike a piece offurniture.
And because I was already doingthat and helping my mother as a
kid, trying to like, restorefurniture, where my mom was
always dragging home, something,she found on the side of the
road and we would, repaint it orrefinish it.
So this was kind of the best ofboth worlds.
(05:15):
I had a project to restore, workon, monkey around with, and then
put it in the water and enjoyit.
Joy Blue (05:21):
Who supported you along that learning journey?
Like your parents taught you howto refinish.
Chad Durren (05:27):
Yes.
I would say my mom was probablythe biggest supporter in the
sense that she's the one thattaught me how to sand and
varnish and stain a piece ofwood.
And make it look you could, youcan find a lot of things in the
junk or at a flea market or yardsale or in an estate sale, and
you can take it home and you canclean it up, put it in your
home.
She's the one that was kind oflike the, do it yourselfer.
My father didn't own a toolexcept for like a hammer and a,
(05:50):
a bad screwdriver.
He, the basics.
And I was always getting introuble for not returning them
to where, the toolbox where hekept everything, but he was not
very handy.
My dad could screw in a lightbulb and then it ends right
there.
Joy Blue (06:03):
Well, Hey, got thing going for him.
Chad Durren (06:04):
Yes.
If the toaster was broken, myfather was looking for a new
toaster.
And I was looking for thescrewdriver so I could take it
apart or the hammer to bang onit.
Yeah.
so that started the love oftinkering with things.
Why get a new one when you canjust fix the one that you've
got.
Yeah.
And it's just like anything elsethese days.
Older things were built better.
(06:26):
They were built with pride andwith a little bit of love and a
little bit of maintenance, theywould last a long time.
You can go to the store now andbuy a toaster and within a
couple years you need a new onecuz something that's plastic
kind of broke.
Joy Blue (06:36):
Right.
Totally.
Okay.
So backing up a little bit.
For those of us in the worldthat might not be boating
humans, can you auditorilydescribe what a Chris craft
looks like.
Chad Durren (06:49):
When you're in one, there's a feeling that you've
kind of stepped back in time andwhen you're on the lake driving
one, you always get the waves.
You get the thumbs up, you getthe, Hey, I love your boat.
I love the way it looks.
To me, it's and it's not justthe look, they all look great.
Anything that's finished, toperfection varnished with a
mirror shine or a Chrome that'spolished, you can comb your hair
(07:11):
in it, it's always attractive,but it's the sound, it's the
experience.
It's the fact that you can'tjust get in it like a car and
turn the key.
There's a process.
You gotta pump this, you gottaprime this, you gotta turn this
valve three quarters thisdirection, you gotta pump the
gas, you gotta push the button.
You gotta turn this, turn thekey.
They all have kind of like astartup sequence.
(07:33):
That to me, that's just kind ofthe fun of it.
Not everybody can hop in andwant and go.
And knowing how to do something,fly a plane, drive a forklift,
anything that's different thanjust getting in.
You always feel like there'sjust a little bit more of
attachment to it,
Joy Blue (07:47):
Well, it's kind of like the analogy you just used
of the old toaster.
You can go in and look at it andyou can do something about it,
but the newer stuff, it's notanalog anymore.
So what I think I'm hearing yousay is there's a beauty of the
analog of the Chris craft,
Chad Durren (08:00):
Yes, they were not mass produced in any way.
Joy Blue (08:04):
are each of them hand built?
Chad Durren (08:05):
They're all hand built.
Most of the wooden boatmanufacturers were in the
Midwest.
Chris craft specifically wasAlgonac, which is just south of
Detroit.
So there were automobiles beingbuilt.
Model T's and model A's wererolling off the assembly line.
And Henry Ford invented theassembly line where, the boat or
the car traveled through themanufacturing facility and
everybody had one role.
(08:26):
You're the guy that twists thescrews.
You're the guy that mounts theboard.
You're the guy that hammers thenail.
And as it comes out the end, youhave a completed car.
And Chris craft was the firstboat manufacturer to adopt Henry
Ford's assembly line method ofmanufacturing.
Joy Blue (08:43):
Interesting.
Mm-hmm
Chad Durren (08:43):
So it literally came in on pallets of wood,
planks of wood that werehammered to the frame.
And then finished and fittedwith all of the hardware, the
engine um, stained, and thenvarnished with like three coats
of varnish.
And then they left the factory.
So a big day of production backthen was, four boats rolling off
the assembly line in one day.
(09:05):
You know, you think ofautomobiles.
Now, a model of car has,hundreds of thousands of just
that one model.
It's because hundreds are comingoff the assembly line each day.
Back then, big production run ona boat was maybe 1200.
So they're rare.
And when you see one, you'rejust you're privileged to see
something that there are veryfew of'em.
(09:25):
Some of'em didn't survive.
That boat that I was talkingabout earlier that my, my father
bought when I was in highschool, we'd enjoyed it for two
years.
And then it fell into a state ofdisrepair where my dad trailered
across the street and it satunderneath a big plastic tarp
for years.
And I thought to myself, that'sa bit wasteful to enjoy
something for a couple years andthen just let it rot.
(09:48):
And I wasn't gonna let ithappen.
So I started tinkering with itmyself in high school, and
refinishing it with theintention of getting it back on
the water.
So whenever you can takesomething that's broken or in a
state of disrepair and put itback into circulation or back
into use it's rewarding.
Joy Blue (10:04):
What's that process like with a wood boat?
Like if it's rotted that justseems like going into a rabbit
hole that you might never comeout of.
Chad Durren (10:12):
Right.
Well, I like the idea that thereare projects that could be had
on the cheap.
My, that boat, my father, Ithink maybe purchased for$2,500.
I spent like probably threeyears of my life restoring it.
I brought it to Chicago and keptit in Belmont Harbor, downtown
Chicago.
But when I was ready to start myfreelance business, I sold the
boat.
And I sold it for like 11 grand.
(10:33):
So my father, spent maybe$2,500on it originally, but I put
three years of.
blood, sweat, and tears into itwith very minimal investment on
that boat.
Everything was there.
It just kind of needed what wecall in the restoration
business, like a mop and glow.
It was like it needed to beshined up.
It needed to be loved.
It needed to be painted.
(10:54):
It needed to be recaulked.
The engine needed some attentionto be able to start.
Joy Blue (10:58):
let's break it down real quick.
I'm familiar enough with thewood finishing process because I
grew up in my dad's wood shop.
And I have so much respect forthe smell of cut wood and all
the wood smell, things that yousaid, I'm like, yes, I'm right
there with you.
What is the process of startingto strip a boat back to its
essence and build it back up?
Chad Durren (11:19):
I'll use my first personal boat, not the family
boat that I used or restoredpersonally, but was my first
boat was a gift and it was soldto me for a dollar.
The proof of a sale was a dollaragreement.
And it was a wreck.
The shape was there.
The wood was there, but it wasnot gonna float.
Its original bottom from 1952was rotten out of it.
(11:41):
It was a 1952 sportsman, an 18foot boat that I still have and
is still the, kind of like the,my favorite boat.
I bought it for a dollar.
But you take the hardware off ofit.
The Chrome bits, the hardware,the steering gear, the steering
wheel, the gauges, the engine.
Anything That's not wood.
You strip off of the boat.
It gets pushed aside.
(12:01):
Parts that need to be repaintedor polished to you,
Joy Blue (12:04):
do you document that somehow?
Okay.
Chad Durren (12:05):
With photographs, thousands of photographs.
I've never been big on themanual of disassembling
something, or even like mycomputer, if I need to upgrade
Ram or I need to do something,I'd usually just grab a
screwdriver, take it apart, butI have to take photographs.
So I know how to put it backtogether.
There's nothing worse thanputting something back together
and finding leftover parts.
(12:26):
Cause you know that Just
Joy Blue (12:29):
oops.
Chad Durren (12:30):
So you take a picture of it in the form of
where it sits.
And then as you disassemble it,you're taking pictures of how it
goes back together.
So, cause when I restored myfirst boat, I didn't reassemble
it for another six years later.
And by then you have, will haveforgotten everything.
So tons of photographs.
You strip the hardware off, youstrip the engine out of it, and
(12:53):
then you tackle the wood.
And if the wood is rotten,meaning that if there's no
strength or oils left in thewood it doesn't make for very
safe boat.
And in the world of boatrestoration, bottoms, anything
that sat below the water line.
Has a tendency to be dried outand weaker than the rest of the
boat, because that's where itgot most of the abuse.
(13:13):
And that's where the water was.
Uh, Wood is very porous.
So it soaks up water in theseason that it's in the water,
it swells and in the off season,it dries and then it shrinks.
So that's constantly moving andflowing and they're really
sensitive to humidity andmoisture.
And over the years, too muchswelling and shrinking, the wood
(13:35):
gets tired.
The oils leave the wood, andthen you could literally poke
your finger through wood.
So you go around and you take anice pick and you tap around the
wood to see whether something issoft.
And where it's soft, that pieceof wood needs to be replaced.
So they're fastened to the frameof the boat, which are the ribs
and the keel.
Planks are bent into shape orsteam bent into shape and then
(13:56):
screwed to those frames.
So you have to pull thosefasteners off, the screws off
and size up a new piece of wood,fit it to the boat, fasten it to
the boat, and then you move onto the next piece of wood.
And on my first boat, the entirebottom was replaced.
It was all brand new.
And there are some moderntechniques that they didn't use
(14:16):
originally that the life of theboat is really extended.
Joy Blue (14:19):
Fascinating
Chad Durren (14:20):
When boats left the factory, back in the fifties, I
mean, I mean, they've been builtsince the turn of the century,
but mine specifically, as afifties boat was only guaranteed
to last six years.
The bottom of the boat wasintended to be replaced within,
you know, after six years ofuse.
And nowadays you wouldn't buy aboat if you knew they had to put
a new bottom on it in six years,you'd want it for the rest of
(14:43):
your life for at least 20 or 30years.
Joy Blue (14:46):
So how does that play out then if you have old wood
next to new wood, like, doesthat change the dynamic of it?
Chad Durren (14:53):
No.
The hardest problem is trying tofind there were certain species
that wood used in the fiftiesHonduran mahogany and Philippine
mahogany that were used.
And there was a shortage of itessentially ran out of it in the
sixties.
We had chopped down all thetrees in the rainforest to make
boats and.
Yes, it was the war.
Landing craft and PT boats wereall made out of wood and there
(15:15):
was a demand just like any otherin world war I, there was a
demand, a shortage of metal.
You know what I mean?
In world war II, it was ashortage of tropical hardwoods.
Mahoganies that are resistant torot.
So all of the boats that werebuilt with Honduran mahogany
Yeah.
So you're using replacementwood, which isn't readily
available.
There's different species,there's Philippine and African
(15:37):
mahogany.
And you're laying up newerpieces of mahogany to old and
staining them.
Appear like they would'veappeared in 1952.
Joy Blue (15:45):
Staining is just the color.
Chad Durren (15:47):
yes.
And Chris craft uses a specificcolor.
They call it Chris craft red,but there was a number that they
gave it and they stillmanufacture that same color of
Chris craft stain.
Varnishes have developed overtime.
They last longer, they're moreUV protectant.
And that's just to encapsulatethe wood and the grain and
protect it from the elements.
(16:08):
So once you've put your raw woodon there, you've stained it.
You've matched the rest of theboat.
Then you go to encapsulating itor protecting that wood
underneath of it.
So you're basically making ahard, hard varnish shell.
Originally there was only threecoats.
It just it looked pretty, but itdoesn't have the number of coats
of varnish that you see on boatsnow.
And that's just because youdon't want to have to put
(16:30):
varnish on your boat every year.
Right now it's like an everythree year or every six year
type thing.
But back then they used it untilit fell apart and they replaced
it.
Or they took it, haul it to thedump, and or to the bonfire.
Joy Blue (16:43):
That's really sad.
Chad Durren (16:44):
Yeah.
Joy Blue (16:45):
What is varnish made of?
Chad Durren (16:46):
There used to be volatile chemicals but they're
oils from exotic hardwoods thatare harvested and added to the
wood to give it a protectiveshell.
There's artificial ones, sparvarnishes that use basically
they contained SAP.
Joy Blue (17:03):
Interesting.
Chad Durren (17:03):
And they harden over time.
So you can put coat on coat overthe top of them.
But there's now newer coatingsand varnishes that are
polyurethanes or they'reepoxies.
Two part formulas that harden upwhere you're putting a hard
shell.
I prefer to use naturalvarnishes, which are made from
the natural extracts of trees.
Joy Blue (17:24):
That's so interesting
Chad Durren (17:25):
yeah.
Joy Blue (17:26):
In my head varnish was more like analogous to like
laminating a piece of paper,
Chad Durren (17:32):
Right.
Joy Blue (17:33):
but I didn't realize it was natural substances.
Chad Durren (17:35):
Yes.
They were natural substance usedto be in in furniture, repair
shops, a jar that had they werelaquer.
laquer was made from Shelac thatyou added thinners to.
But it was like a hard a hardchunk of like of sap that
solvents and thinners were addedto it so that you could paint it
onto the brush, but old repairshops and antique repair shops
(17:58):
always have a jar of this hardball crystallized sap that they
thin to put over to wood toprotect it.
And it's all natural is an allnatural.
Yeah.
It is amazing.
when you think about it.
Most of the glue, most of theglues and epoxies that are made
are extracted from plants.
Joy Blue (18:17):
I didn't know that either.
Chad Durren (18:18):
There's artificial.
And then there's glues madefrom, trees and plants.
Joy Blue (18:22):
You're blowing my mind right now.
Chad Durren (18:24):
Yeah.
I mean, people had to buildthings.
I don't know when the firstperson to use tree sap to uh, to
build something, but it goesback centuries.
Joy Blue (18:34):
Wow.
Chad Durren (18:34):
Saps and oils and Shellac and all sorts of things.
Joy Blue (18:38):
That's amazing.
Okay.
Getting back on board a littlebit, you told me that you have
redone two more boats sincethen.
Chad Durren (18:45):
I have,
Joy Blue (18:47):
Each of those kind of belongs to one of your kids.
Right.
Chad Durren (18:50):
right?
Joy Blue (18:51):
And those are both Chris craft as well.
Chad Durren (18:53):
yes, they are.
Well, no one of them in themiddle was not a Chris craft.
I've done three differentmaterials.
My father's boat from highschool was a wooden boat
restoration.
My first one that I did myselfwas the 1952 Chris craft.
And that one was wooden as well.
but.
I did an aluminum boat inbetween after I finished that
one.
I thought, oh, I'll never dothis again.
(19:13):
This was kind of one of thoselong painful, it wasn't painful
for me, but over the course ofthree years, I was dumping money
into a project That I didn'tknow that it was gonna be
finished.
And, you're kind of throwingmoney at it until it finally,
the problem goes away.
You put a, you have a list ofitems that need to be completed
before you can Actually goboating in it.
And it was It was a longjourney.
And I thought, you know what,I'll take a break from this for
(19:34):
a while.
But after like two years of nottouching anything, I was like, I
need another project because Ireally enjoyed, you know, my
weekend and evening hours goingout into the garage and working
on it.
So I did an aluminum boat, whichwas probably a little bit easier
than the, I did that one in thecourse of months, not years.
A piece of aluminum that gotpolished, to, with a mirror
shine and an engine attached.
(19:55):
And I had fun with that one.
And I sold that one.
And then I bought a fiberglassboat from the sixties.
And in the mid sixties, Chriscraft had kind of, it was in the
process of phasing out of woodand introducing fiberglass,
which was already being used byother manufacturers for big
cruisers and saltwater boats.
(20:16):
Saltwater is extremely damagingto, all boats in general, but
specifically wood boats are hardto maintain in a salty
environment.
Joy Blue (20:23):
Yeah,
Chad Durren (20:24):
So I bought a rare boat, a 1969, Chris craft
commander super sport.
it's a long name, but it wasChris craft's first recreational
speedboat made out offiberglass.
And, it was overengineered.
They didn't Know the strength offiberglass at the time.
So they made it like threequarters of inch thick, which
(20:45):
was just insane.
It's really heavy stuff.
And the boat is built like atank.
So they put larger power plantsin them cuz they needed to move
across the water.
So they, Chris craft used touse, Smaller six cylinder
engines.
And now they started strappingin Chevy small blocks in them
with a lot of horsepower so thatthey would move faster.
And it wasn't really just forthe need for speed.
(21:05):
It was because they were so bigand they were so heavy, bulky.
And that production run wasabout 85 or 90 boats.
And I have one and I have, yes,they changed.
they changed.
the name of it and called it.
something else in 70.
so, they only made it for oneyear and one year they made like
90 of them.
And then in 1970, they switchedthe name of the boat and changed
(21:28):
a bunch of things about thepower plant and the finishing of
the interior boat.
And then they think they madeabout 3000 of them.
But.
Yes.
Yes.
And that one was my son's boat.
And I always joked with myfriends that were like, how does
your wife let you spend money onthese boats?
And I said, just name'em afteryour kids.
And then your wife will be onboard so,
Joy Blue (21:47):
okay.
right.
Totally on board.
Yeah.
Chad Durren (21:50):
Yeah.
She doesn't have her boat yet.
And I guess I don't really havemy boat yet.
So there's still room for acouple more.
Joy Blue (21:57):
great.
You have a lot of life to liveyet.
Chad Durren (21:59):
Yes.
A kid needs a boat.
Right.
Joy Blue (22:02):
Well, I didn't have a boat.
So
Chad Durren (22:05):
Did you ever, like when you were a kid float a
stick down a mud puddle or adrain or something like that and
think,
Joy Blue (22:13):
what is, well kind of.
Chad Durren (22:13):
yeah.
You had a toy in the bathtubthat
Joy Blue (22:15):
Yeah.
I mean, we always joked thatwhen my dad got a pickup truck,
we're like, what are you gonnaget a boat?
We're not really water family,
Chad Durren (22:23):
Right.
Yeah.
I didn't become a pickup driveruntil I owned a boat because,
because I think I tried to towmy 22 foot Chris craft on the
Dan Ryan behind my Isuzu rodeoand realized that was not a,
that was not a wise decision.
So then my brother's like, you.
need a truck.
Joy Blue (22:42):
There are so many words there.
You tried to tow it on one ofthe busiest highways in Chicago,
Chad Durren (22:48):
Yes.
I'm one of the smallest, mostthe weakest power trains of any
SUV on the road at time.
An Isuzu rodeo.
There's a reason Isuzu rodeos onthe road anymore.
Fell apart or rusted.
Yeah.
Joy Blue (23:06):
I'm really glad you made it this far, despite the
Isuzu rodeo.
Chad Durren (23:10):
Yes.
I've come a long way since that.
Joy Blue (23:13):
Chad, this has been so fun.
Thank you for your time and forsharing with us about your love
of boats.
I learned so much today
Chad Durren (23:20):
Thanks for having me.
I had a blast.
Joy Bork (23:22):
So Here We Are! I learned so much in today's
interview about boats.
Outside of being able to pointat one and say, that's a boat,
or being able to paddle a canoeor a kayak, I haven't had the
chance to learn more about thesepieces of art.
And I am so grateful to have hadthe time to do that with Chad.
(23:44):
Thank you so much for your time,Chad.
If you've got a flavor of nerdthat you want me to celebrate, I
would love to hear all about it.
Go ahead and email me atherewearethepodcast@gmail.com
and tell me everything.
And I really mean it.
I love taking time to sit andmake space for nerd to be
celebrated.
(24:04):
If you really liked this podcastand want to financially support
what I'm doing, head on over topatreon.com, search for Here We
Are the podcast and sign up forone of the many, many
beautifully written supporttiers that I'm really proud of.
So until next time, don't forgetthe curiosity wins.
And the world needs more nerds.
Bye
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