Bailey McCrae is passionate about his family’s boats. It was almost 60 years ago that his father bought a 1952 Greavette Utility, purchasing it in 1951, and a Greavette Dispro the following year. For this issue, the story is all about the Utility.

The McCraes came to the Hamer Bay peninsula in 1945. The only powerboat included with the cottage was a little lapstrake outboard with a 2.5- to 3.0-hp Johnson F70 motor. It was all this little boat, named “Alice,” could do to transport the family to and from local destinations.

Bailey McCrae explains that “Alice was too low in the water when loaded with a family of six (with water overflowing sometimes during a storm). Mother dreaded us boys going into that outboard.” It was clear that a bigger boat was quickly needed!

The new Greavette Utility, named “Dorothy Elizabeth,” was a much bigger boat with greater free board, length and power. “The motor size of the utility launch was 125 hp. I’ve had it completely rebuilt once and it is now considered a 130-hp Buchanan motor, due to the reboring of the cylinders,” says McCrae.

“While the original maximum rpm speed was 3,100, we have always cruised at about 2,300; plowing through the water instead of planing on top — even though this might use more fuel, but this light use of the engine has allowed us to keep the original motor up to this day.”

The memories and escapades in this boat are the stuff of cottage legend. By the way Bailey McCrae moves around his boat, it is obvious he can fix just about anything it needs, and he knows the waters around the Hamer Bay area well, too. A great recipe for fearless adventures.

McCrae fondly remembers one particular story, when the Utility carried up to 22 people in one trip.

“While I was coming back from Port Carling one late afternoon, I noticed a couple of men rowing a rowboat towards the north end of lake Joseph,” he relates.

“At this time (about 1955), we had a summer retreat place bought by the Jesuits in Stanley Bay (the old Stanley House Hotel). The novitiates would take out rowboats and tour the lake.”

McCrae saw what looked like one of these rowboats very far away from Stanley Bay . . . and any hope of supper! So he offered them a lift back.

“A bit later, I saw another rowboat. This continued until I had 22 people on board, with probably four on the engine hood, despite the fact the seats allow for seven in the boat. The rowboats had been tied from the end cleats of the launch all in a line. I even had four boats with their people in them attached to the train of rowboats.

“As you would expect, our speed was at a crawl, but much quicker than with two oars. I managed to get them all home for supper on time.”

As a youngster, McCrae remembers heading all the way down to Lake Rosseau for evenings at Cleveland’s House. “When we young ones headed down the lake to Cleveland’s House for dancing or to that Rock-Around-The-Clock dance hall in Port Carling next to Duke’s Marina,” explains McCrae, “I would always be the driver with a saddened lady sitting next to me, while all the other couples would be comfortable under coats or blankets from the wind.

“On the return trip at night, I knew where exactly to go, past coloured stakes and the few buoys that marked the channels, the river and rocks when the moon was not present; although I’ve had a few close calls,” he admits.

Driving from Cleveland’s House all the way up to Hamer Bay at night, with few illuminated markers and the weak spotlights of the day, would have been quite a challenge. There are several sets of small islands with tricky channels and any kind of fog or mist makes everything look the same.

A week or two ago, McCrae showed just how fond he is of his Utility, as we took pictures of him with his daughter on board the boat they named Dorothy Elizabeth, in front of the “Marshmallow Point,” near where the family used to summer at Hamer Bay, Lake Joseph.