COOK- Warm sunshine, classic boats, and a steady crowd made for a lively afternoon Saturday at the 34th annual Lake Vermilion Antique and Classic Boat Show.
Held at the docks of the Lakeside Bar & Grill, formerly The Landing, the show featured a mix of familiar crowd favorites and boats making their first appearance at the event. The Dude’s provided live music, while the Sawmill Saloon served food.
Lakeside Bar & Grill is not yet open for business, but visitors had an opportunity Saturday to step inside and look over the renovations underway at the longtime lakeside gathering place.
The show traces its beginnings to Labor Day weekend in 1991, when the first Antique and Classic Boating Weekend was held on Lake Vermilion. Boaters stayed at Vermilion Dam Lodge and brought their boats to Bay View Lodge for the public show.
Among the boats attracting attention Saturday was “Skinny Dippin,” a 1953 Greavette Dispro owned by Ricky and Christy Hammer of Wealthwood Township near the north end of Mille Lacs Lake.
Dispro is a shortened name for a disappearing-propeller boat, a design developed in Ontario’s Muskoka Lakes region during the early 20th century. Its defining feature is a propeller assembly that can be drawn up inside a housing in the bottom of the boat.
“The big thing about these boats is the retractable propeller. You could retract the propeller up into the housing there in the bottom of the boat, so you could make it through shallow areas or over rocks,” Hammer said. “And there’s a skeg that hangs down underneath the prop, so if you hit something, it’ll automatically push the prop up into the bottom of the boat.”
Greavette Boat Company acquired the Dispro patterns and patents in 1936 and built approximately 400 of the boats at its Gravenhurst, Ontario, plant through 1958. Greavette produced only the largest version of the design, measuring about 18 feet long.
The company generally built its Dispros with western red cedar planking over steam-bent white oak ribs. Skinny Dippin’ is powered by a two-cylinder Coventry-Victor engine.
Hammer said the boat previously belonged to Dr. Bob Johnson, a longtime member and supporter of the Land-O-Lakes Classic Boat Club, the regional chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society.
Johnson and his wife acquired the boat in the Muskoka area around 1989 or 1990 and brought it home to Minnesota. Hammer purchased it about a year and a half ago following Johnson’s death.
It was already in reasonably good condition, but Hammer still put considerable work into the interior and hull.
“After many loving coats of varnish later and lots of sanding, here she is,” he said.
Hammer and his wife own several vintage boats and rotate their time among them. They get Skinny Dippin’ onto the water about once a month, usually choosing one of the smaller lakes near their home.
Mille Lacs can become too rough for the craft, which Hammer described as a “fair weather boat.” Its leisurely cruising speed of about six to eight miles per hour is more suited to a quiet outing than a race across open water.
The boat has already earned recognition elsewhere. Skinny Dippin’ received Best Launch honors at the 2025 Whitefish Chain Antique and Classic Wood Boat Rendezvous and the Skipper’s Choice Award at the 2026 Diamond Classic Boat Show. But Hammer said the Lake Vermilion show’s smaller size is part of its appeal.
“It’s a nice show. It’s a very personal show,” Hammer said. “You’ve got a little smaller crowd, and everybody gets to know each other a little better and appreciate the fine vintage boats.”
Hammer also makes a practical argument for giving an old boat new life.
“Why buy new when old and used will do?” he said. “Do you want a boat that everybody’s going to remember you in, or do you want another plastic one that’s going to drop $80,000 in value in the next three years and be in the scrap pile in another 15 years?”
Beyond dollars and cents, he said, restoring a vintage boat gives its owner a personal investment in preserving something built to last.
“I’m hoping we can get more of the younger generation into this because, you know, we need more people to enjoy and preserve these boats,” Hammer said. “It’d be nice to encourage and see some of the younger generation get into it.”