Classic Craft

Work of Art

1967 29'6" Lyman Sportsman

ADD YOUR BOAT!

Email KBUSH@

LAKELANDBOATING.COM

if you have a Classic Craft with a great story to share! The search for Work of Art, our 1967 Lyman Sportsman, really began in the spring of 1974 when our Dad fi nally caved in to years of cajoling from his three sons — especially middle son Steve — and perhaps decades of his own silent dreaming. Having forever fi shed from the various piers and breakwalls along Sandusky Bay, we were fi nally going to join the fl eet of boats heading out to harvest our share of Lake Erie’s bounteous yellow perch! Having never had a boat of any kind, we boys would have been happy with any tin scow with an outboard that would’ve taken us to the middle of the bay or out to “the horn” where they were always biting. Dad, a carpenter by trade and a true craftsman at heart, insisted that if there was going to be a boat, it was going to be a Lyman — the clinker-built, lapstrake wooden gems that had been built in Sandusky for nearly a half century.

By the summer of ‘74, our family had become the curators of a lemonade yellow 1957 16-foot, 6-inch Lyman runabout with its original 1957 Evinrude Lark. We fi shed for a lot of perch in that boat; we learned to waterski in the back bay behind Cedar Point in her; we took sunset rides and wooed a few dates (and even a wife) in that wonderful runabout. It may have been Steve’s idea, but we all learned to love that little Lyman! Even our mother, after years of poo-pooing the entire venture and chastising us when we came home covered in paint or varnish or caulk, came around. She eventually landed more perch — and the occasional pickerel — than the rest of us! Most importantly, our formative experiences with Dad’s Lyman began a quest that was fi nally completed in the summer of 2021.

The family Lyman inspired Mark, Steve and me to pursue boating in a variety of vessels over the years; yes, there were Lymans — but there also were Chris-Crafts and Sea Rays and Trojans and Whalers and even a slow sailboat (HC36) from China in the mix! Discussions of the merits and pitfalls of each inevitably ended with the same tongue-in-cheek conclusion: All nice, but none stirred the soul or wailed the siren’s song like a big ol’ Lyman. The boat we’d really been dreaming about was what the 1967 Lyman brochure described as the “...ultimate in big, open day boats: The 29'6" Sportsman.”

Steve found Work of Art hiding in plain sight on the Lyman Boat Owners Association (LBOA) Trading Dock in the winter of 2021 and began a correspondence with her caregiver, Kieth Wolcott. Kieth and his brother Dix Wolcott had been providing professional-grade care for the boat and turning heads on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee with Work of Art for 15 years. Dix bought the boat from its second owner, Art Armstrong, who had cruised the boat on Lake St. Clair and the Great Lakes for 30 seasons! Although the boat’s fi rst decade is a mystery, these two previous owners did yeoman’s work to preserve and pass down to our family partnership a spectacular example of the design and construction carried out at Lyman Boat Works by our friends and neighbors here in our hometown. We are proud to join the lineage of caretakers of Work of Art and were especially happy to welcome her back home to Sandusky Bay in July 2021. — Christine, Steven and John May