The five year restoration of a 70 year old Chris-Craft Riviera: Part two

Glen Archer was standing among the spectators at his son’s mountain biking competition in Hamilton, waiting for the racers to emerge from the forest. He’d just whipped out his phone and was quickly scanning Ebay when he saw it.

The Chris-Craft Riviera 20, a 70-year-old mahogany and oak leisure craft, of which only 30 were left in the world:

“Having been looking for a while, I just looked at it and thought, yep that’s the boat,” Glen said.

A leap of faith

As soon as Glen saw the vessel he went into strategy mode and started thinking about how he could win the auction:

“They’re quite hard to buy because they’ve got a real cult following and not a lot of guys want them going out of America when they sell them.”

“I’d already missed two other boats so I approached this one very strategically.”

The vessel was being sold as part of a deceased estate. The current owner had bought it in 1989, disassembled and refinished it, taken it home, and never put it back together. There was no way to do a proper inspection so Glen watched the questions section on the listing and reviewed the answers: 

“It was a leap of faith. I was buying the boat as is where is and it was a bit of a punt. But the rarity of the boat made that risk worth it for me.”

Just before the hammer fell 

Glen hung back showing minimal interest in the boat via eBay, then just before the hammer fell he made a bid and watched as the auction closed. He stared at the screen for a moment in disbelief and then quietly celebrated.

Now that he’d bought the vessel the real work would begin - first he had to ship it from Minnesota USA to Hamilton NZ, a distance of around 13,000 km:

 “I have a shipping contact here in New Zealand who helped me arrange it all. First, the boat was put in a 40-foot shipping container in Minnesota, then trained to Seattle where it could be shipped.”

“Next, it was put on a ship and started the long journey from the United States to New Zealand, via China (which was the cheapest option). We got it through in the end but shipping a 70-year-old timber boat caused some challenges with customs cleaning and biosecurity.”

While the boat was slowly making its way across the ocean Glen ordered all the stains, paints, and gear he needed to restore the vessel via suppliers in the States. At this stage, it was all starting to become very real.

Much better than expected

After several months of searching and then several months of waiting as the boat travelled across the globe, it finally arrived. Glen had it transported to his workshop and waited. When it showed up he was stunned:

“It was much better than expected. It looked like it was in better condition than the pictures. The chrome railings had newspaper on them to protect them and it all looked decent.” 

“The hullcard was still on the vessel, describing the original specifications of the boat and there were a bunch of letters between ex-owners.”

Little did Glen know the restoration of the vessel sitting in front of him would take up almost five years of his life and countless hours after work and on the weekends. With no experience in the boat building trade and zero experience restoring vintage vessels, he was in for a long and challenging restoration.

This is part two of a three-part series on the purchase, shipping, restoration, and launch of Whimsical Mistress, the only boat of its kind in New Zealand. Read part one to discover the history of the vessel and part three on the restoration and launch of the boat