Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Lucas stories

Hey everyone,
I'm the next in the Lucas clan of boaters, the art skipped a generation. Willard Lucas is my great uncle, and is helping me build my first drifter (pics soon to come). I was Harassing him the other day to tell me some stories about boating back in his day and being the humble old timer he is wouldn't really tell me much so i figured i would come here for back up. If any one has any memorable stories of boating with, or just being around the Lucas family i would love for you to share them. Also any photos of the Lucas' would be awesome. I want to put together a little something for him so anything at all would help.

Thanks,
Dan Lucas Hoecker

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Permalink Reply by Brad Dimock on February 13, 2010 at 7:24pm

In 2002 I was building the Holmstrom replica boat up at Roger Fletcher's shop. Roger invited Willard to come see the progress, because Willard remembered seeing the original Holmstrom boat when he was a mailman in Coquille and the boat sat outside Mrs' Holmstrom's house--long after Buzz Holmstrom was dead. Anyhow, we have the boat pretty well formed and are pretty proud of how she looks when Willard walks in. He looks at it for a while and says, "Oh, no, you've got it all wrong. This isn't how Buzz's boat looked at all." We were speechless. After a pause WIllard added, "His boat had gray paint and it was all peeling off."
Got us laughing pretty hard.
Afterward he said we actually had the shape just as he remembered.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on February 13, 2010 at 7:34pm

Hello Daniel, Welcome.

I've been trying to get Willard to come to the Wooden Boat Festival. Do you think there is any chance of getting him out of the house?

A couple of years ago I ran into one of the Lucas clan that lives on Marcola Road. He had very early wooden Rogue River jet boat with an inboard. It was is bad shape but could be saved. Do you know anything about that boat?

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Lucas Hoecker on February 15, 2010 at 10:18am

First off, thank you both for the replies,
Brad, thats a great story, it sounds exactly like something Willard would say. He has a great sense of humor, and loves to make you think twice about things.

Randy,
yes i'm in the process of getting him to come to the festival. I was actually just at his house on friday and he said he has always wanted to go but hasn't. after i told him i waould drive him up there he thought about it for a little while then said we'd talk about it later. Me building one of his boats is getting him all fired up, to hopefully i can convince him.
I do know a thing or two about that boat. The guy you ran into is my uncle Randy Northup. He is one of the next generation to run the lodge. The boat was built by Hugh McGinnis though i'm not sure of the year. It was built with slats rather than plywood, and is in good shape. Right now it is all sanded and waiting for paint and a few small replacements of trim peices. We plan to have it on the river by this summer.