 Suamico resident Cal Martell is a long time supporter of Rawhide Boys Ranch and its mission. He has donated several vehicles and a motorcycle to us and has also bought several items from Rawhide. Cal, now retired, began attending Rawhide auctions in the early 80s when they were still open to the public. His story below tells of an on-again, off-again relationship with a certain wooden boat on the auction block. Eventually, Cal was able to win the boat and then spent three years rebuilding her.
Today, Cal's boat, Glass of '63, provides endless hours of recreation and entertainment to Cal, his family, and his grandchildren. To learn more about Glass of '63's journey from the junkyard to the waters of Door County, read Cal's story below.
Although Rawhide no longer has auctions on the ranch like the one Cal attended, we do sell dozens of boats, RVs, and collector cars on eBay each week. Visit our eBay store daily to see what's new. Who knows ... your diamond in the rough could be waiting for you now! |
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| Dreams Do Come True | | | Written by Cal Martell
I was raised in Sturgeon Bay, WI, the beating heart of Door County, home of shipbuilders and part-time home of Chicago’s upper class. Pre-teen, early ‘50s, very early Palmer Johnson before the mega yacht scene. I acquired water and boating in my blood in those early years when a bicycle ride to the only yacht harbor in town would make me drool over the glistening chrome, polished varnish and neat-as-a-pin coiled line. Home of the mahogany runabouts. I would dream, one day I will have one of those …
Fast forward.
2002, a bright, sunny, crisp, spring day, April, a Friday, the third Friday of the month like always and like clockwork at 8:00a.m. a group gathers around and the melee begins. Like all others I checked out the auction crowd and the wares … and then I saw her. At first glance I knew she had to be mine. Surely I could not possess a trophy like this. Even if I could win her the problems would mount but I had to try. I took the first step and then another and another nod but to no avail. It was over in the blink of an eye, someone else took her away and I settled for another less attractive, less personal, colder object of affection. |
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 So began my on again off again romance with "Virginia II".
Each month of the spring/summer season I would go to New London, WI, to Rawhide Boys Ranch for their auction of boats and various articles to support their mission. I have done this for many years. A part-time enterprise but it fills my spare time. Usually about two or three purchases a year. Back in the early ‘90s there was a 17’ Chris Craft on the auction block, really bad shape and not much to look at but the gavel dropped at around $5,500 to some dude wearing a black cowboy hat (no spurs). He crawled onto her with a passion, lifting seats, covers, floor boards just checking to see what he had really bought. Like all auctions you take your chances at the pig in a poke.
Ten years later, another mahogany boat sits in the lineup. Remembering what it was like so many years ago I figured whatever this baby is she will not go cheap. She sat on a red trailer, flat tire, chipped peeling varnish, missing seats, missing chrome and a touch of icy snow flitting away on a remote shadowy corner of the aft floor. With faded orange sides and interior and dirty vinyl she looked like a corndog on a stick. What the heck … I set a mental note of my top bid; $3,000 after all would be a fair price for this project. My mistake…the auctioneer starts his uncontrolled blather and the first intelligent uttering that comes out of his mouth is $4,500! YOU GOTTA BE NUTS! Who would pay that much for a piece of dry rot on a trailer? Top bid in the end was again in excess of 5 Gs. So much for visions of romantic dusk cruises and the low growl of the heavy V8. My day was shot; I purchased a 14’ Mirro fisherman with a 33 hp Evinrude for $300, licked my wounded ego and went home.
2003, first spring auction and behold, there before me is the mystery mahogany vessel still sitting on her red trailer, grass growing high, I’ve got another shot at putting her in my garage. Another mental note, another disappointment, same-o same-o, 5 Gs plus. I start asking some of the cronies that are bidding why she’s back and no one seems to know, most of them are here for parts boats and trailers. Well, the drive back home with another second-best behind the Jeep but the mystery is stuck in my head.
2004, you’re kidding right? She’s Baaaaack. You know the drill by now, except the auctioneer put a twist in the plot. Bidding will start at $5,000. Guess what! No one is interested and she sits for another whole summer with this big “HOLD” sign crudely stuck on her bow. Another year passes and each month I take a closer look at her during my monthly excursions, more chipping, more peeling varnish, signs of critters in the exhaust pipes…heaven forbid! This time I’m the one climbing aboard, lifting seats, opening hatches, lifting floorboards, sound familiar? I say to myself, ’sure she’s got some faults but nothing I haven’t overcome with glass and aluminum boats’ but sadly there will be no bidding because of the “HOLD” sign.
2005, Rawhide decides to go the eBay route to generate more cash flow. What the heck, it saves me gas money and if there’s something I’m really interested in I can make the drive to check it out. During the summer I make a few purchases and then in December it happened, there on the auction site was the mystery boat. Now the playing field is even and no bobbing heads, no rubberneck to cloud my bidding and above all no “HOLD” sign. Quick set my mental price, don’t get caught in a bidding war, surely this baby will go high with the whole world looking in. eBay for dummies, the bible of all neophytes, states that to win a bid you have to make sure you are the last bidder, i.e. sneak in your bid when there is less than 30 seconds to the end of the bidding war. Here I am with a slow dialup connection running windows 98. I haven’t got a snowball’s chance but what the hay, give her a shot what could happen that hasn’t happened the past three years. Bidding starts at $2,500, now that’s more like it. Five days to go, I’ll hold off. During the next few days there are some $50 increment bids but nothing wild. The last day bidding languishes around $2,800, I make the mental note, $3000, stick with it baby! Don’t get caught, yeah yeah, I know. An hour to go, I get sweaty palms, checking the site every five minutes, it seems like it takes three hours for the dialup connection to go on the net. Please phone, do not ring now! Just a little longer, I stay online and refresh every thirty seconds. I let eBay do my bidding, set at $3,100, so much for my resolve. I get nervous, double check the finances and set the price again, $5,000, AM I NUTS?! Surely there is someone else doing the same thing out there in cyberspace. Refresh, Refresh, Refresh. Times up. “Congratulations, you have won the bidding” I get an automatic email that says pay up sucker $3,050. I bought myself a Century Sabre … what the heck is that? Not a clue but I now own one. A beautiful 18’ 1963 pig in a poke!
Now what do I do? Like always, call a buddy, drive to New London and pick up my PayPal honey. The people at Rawhide know me; we’re on a first name basis. They say if they knew it was me bidding they would have raised the price. I sign the paperwork, hook up the red trailer, make sure everything is lashed down tight (wouldn’t want to loose this baby after a three year on-and-off romance), Trailer lights work? Of course not, oh well, I’ll take the back roads for 50 miles. I pick up my free cookies and head back home in the snow. Now she’s in the garage, two inches of new snow melting off, slush, mud, salt and all the other niceties that come with a Wisconsin winter.
Time to go on the net to see what I purchased. First up on Google … “Doctor Rot”, just what I needed to read, a whole web page dedicated to patching up rotted wooden boats. More Googling, Danenberg’s site, the writer of the wooden boat bible. Barnes and Noble never looked so good. Did I bite off more than I could chew or what? I need more help and money for this baby. More Googling and I find the CBC, ACBS web sites, write a few emails, write a few checks and voila, instant expert help and new friends at my fingertips. The rest as they say is history. Two years later and well in excess of 1,300 pictures to document my misadventures, experiments and general amateur rebuild procedures (notice I do not say preservation or restoration), and selling all but my soul on eBay to finance this labor of love and I’m still not finished. What monster is lurking in the garage that drinks up my beer money and uses up every second of my precious time? A phrase that keeps running through my mind is “Work in Progress”. I have come to the conclusion that the love affair will never be over, there will always be some fit and finish project, some little item to change, something to give her that personal touch. Showboat? Hardly, but the registration card says she’s all mine.
Sabre S6388, once named “Virginia II”, with her new appearance package, wet her new 5200 bottom as “Glass of ‘63”. Her shakedown went without a hitch in the spring of 2008.
The name? What better description for the Century’s transition to glass, chrome, class, glitz and glitter, a true representation of my ‘60s era.
The trailer? Brand new tires, new paint, new carpet on the walkways, new lights and wires, even a chrome rimmed spare!
Why she kept coming back to auction? Everyone who bought her thought at that price they could put her in the water and go … now that’s a real dream! |
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