His lone Chris-Craft is a speedy 18-foot Cobra from 1955. Anderson is owner and chairman of APi Group, a multibillion-dollar construction conglomerate in the Twin Cities.Īllen’s collection contains just one Chris-Craft, the company that revolutionized wooden boat production and thereby made it affordable for the masses. Carl Mammel of Alexandria also has a premier collection. ” In Minnesota, Kermit Sutton, Brian Mark and Charlie Underbrink are among other notable collectors in the Brainerd area. “People such as Lee Anderson, who I admire, began to preserve and restore them. “Thankfully, the pendulum swung back,” said Allen. That’s when rarity began to catch collectors’ eyes. Buyers had little interest in wooden boats again until the 1980s. Customers liked fiberglass too because it was a breeze to maintain. In came fiberglass, which builders could easily mold into contemporary - often automobile-inspired - designs. That’s when manufacturing advancements drastically changed boat building. Sadly, Allen said, many of that era’s wooden boats were destroyed or abandoned starting in the 1950s. pleasure was the color of the time, and the boats reflected that.” “It was a time of bootlegging, jazz clubs, flapper girls and Gatsby-like guys. “There’s such nostalgia in that era,” Allen said. These are the craft that sparked America’s fascination with power boating. These are the beauties America’s elite cruised around in during the Roaring ’20s and beyond. His collection comprises mostly those built between World War I and World War II. Today, Allen owns more than 20 wooden boats. It was all so alluring and worth preserving.” “The roots go back to when I was a kid watching wealthy Chicagoans run their boats on the Eagle River Chain of Lakes in northern Wisconsin. “My interest is in recovering the past and presenting it to the future,” said Allen. He is chairman of the international advisory council of Antique Boat Museum (in Clayton, N.Y.), which features more than 300 beautifully restored boats and thousands of artifacts. He was a driving force in bringing the international Antique and Classic Boat Society wooden boat show to the shores of Gull Lake last year. Fascinated by boats since childhood, Allen is an articulate and ardent advocate for cabin culture and wooden boat history. We are talking about collections of 20 or more, and each boat being significant.”Īllen, a Twin Cities commercial real estate developer, is perhaps the most public of these private collectors. “We aren’t talking about individuals with two, four or 10 boats. No other place has such extensive collections,” said Olson. “Over the past 20-plus years Minnesota has become the mecca for antique wooden boats. Olson is the executive director of the Legacy of the Lakes Museum in Alexandria. Minnesota boating historian Bruce Olson agrees. What they have in the Gull Lake area is in a whole different league.” “There are great collections in Michigan, Lake Tahoe, the East Coast and elsewhere, but none compare to those of Lee Anderson and John Allen. “I have been to every part of the antique- and classic-boating universe,” said Matt Smith, publisher of.
These craft - stunning statements of style and speed - are the jewels of several collectors who are preserving and sharing this unique slice of boating history. This lake-rich part of the state has become home to dozens of the finest antique and classic wooden boats in the world. – Minnesota has a deep and storied boating history, and a new and fascinating chapter is being written in the Brainerd Lakes area.
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