He designed boats and created patterns for brand-new models.Įventually Grand Craft was sold, and Wingard followed Northuis to his newest venture - Macatawa Bay Boat Works. When his family’s neighbor, Steve Northuis, started Grand Craft Boats in 1979, Wingard began working at the new shop.
“I graduated college with a business degree,” Wingard says, “then went right back to boats.”
#Loading a wood runabout onto bunk trailer series
His grandfather, Earnest Wingard, had been the captain of a 92-foot yacht built in 1925, the Verano, and several other Great Lakes vessels, while his parents owned a series of smaller boats they used on Lake Macatawa.īy the time Wingard went to college, he knew he wanted to work with older vessels. Teusink met Kirk Wingard at the boat restoration company, and the two quickly became friends. But once I got started, I couldn’t quit,” he says. “My plan was to work on boats for a year, then go back to teaching. In 2004, he began restoring antique and classic runabouts and other vessels at Macatawa Bay Boat Works in Saugatuck. “I have a very loving and understanding wife,” Teusink says.Ī move back to Holland to be closer to his family left him without a job, so Teusink decided to try working on wooden boats until he found another place to teach. He built his first kayak in the living room of his 1,000-square-foot apartment. Although he admired the craftsmanship of older wooden boats from builders such as Chris-Craft and Gar Wood, Teusink thought they would always be out of his reach.Īfter graduating from college with degrees in history and education, he began building wooden boats as a hobby while teaching at an Indiana middle school.
Born into a farming family in Holland, Mich., his childhood was filled with horses and hayrides. Mike Teusink didn’t grow up around boats. The Holland-based company, The Wooden Runabout Co., brings classic beauties back to their former glory.
0 kommentar(er)
