Article: WOOD CRAFT COLLECTORS KEEP VINTAGE BOATS AFLOAT.(Spotlight)

Byline: Mark Wolf, Rocky Mountain News

FRISCO -- Boats like Chip Taft's used to own the water. Handcrafted from fine varnished woods, they cut a sleek swath through the waves.

"They were built by craftsmen who had a flair for lines. They're so artistic. They don't look like the plastic boats - they have a lot of chrome," said Taft, who bought his 1940 Chris-Craft Custom Runabout, named Round the Bend, in 1996.

The term plastic boats (Clorox bottles in less polite vernacular) refers to fiberglass, which overtook wood as the preferred boat-building material in the 1950s and 1960s.

And, wooden boat enthusiasts proclaim, boating hasn't been the same since.

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