Vol. 63, No. 3 autumn 2018 214
3. Lady Isabel, not in its present paint colors, at South Shore Yacht Club in Milwaukee, probably in the 1980s, long aſt er the original deck and cabin had been rebuilt. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, used by permission.
the present-day Burger Boat Company, which is still located in Manitowoc. Originally named Swastika, it was fairly heavily built and was powered by a Fay and Bowen 16-horsepower, three-cylinder, two-stroke engine. T at name, Swastika, and its symbol once represented prosperity and good fortune and was widely used in the ancient world and by many native peoples. Aſt er being co-opted by the Germans in the 1930s it, of course, gained a much more sinister aspect. T e boat entered, and won, a Chicago to Mackinac Island race in July 1907, having covered the 342-mile course with an average speed of just over 9 miles per hour.
Lady Isabel changed hands many times over the course of its career and at some point the deck and cabin were removed and replaced with a raised (or bridge) deck confi guration that incorporated an open backed pilothouse. T e hull was unaff ected by the overhaul. T e raised deck confi guration, which added signifi cantly more room below, was a common sight in power boating circles at least as far back as 1910, as was the canoe stern. When the rebuild actually occurred and who did the design and the actual work are unknown—no drawings or other documentation have surfaced. T e name was changed, too, to its present Lady Isabel, possibly about the same time. T e result can be seen in Figure 3. From about 1979 to 1987 the boat was berthed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; it was then purchased by
4. Lady Isabel on display at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.
Burger, restored over a period of some years, and donated to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Aſt er the restoration it was moved inside the museum and put on display there, in the “Wisconsin Built” gallery on the museum’s lower level. Lady Isabel remains the oldest known Burger built boat in existence. (Figure 4) Burger, today, enjoys much success building custom yachts, and some commercial vessels, in aluminum and steel. Jim Ruff olo and Ron Cleveringa, the CEO and Vice President of Burger, supplied much information about the boat’s early history and its restoration.
The model
When looking at Lady Isabel in its berth downstairs at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum it is virtually impossible to see the entire vessel at once. Sight lines are obscured and one cannot back up far enough to see the entire boat. In the course of some discussions with museum staff I proposed building a scale model that could be placed nearby, giving museum visitors a much better idea of what they were observing. T e proposal was accepted; I would build the model and then donate it to the museum.
Lady Isabel is something of a departure for me. I usually model subjects that have a connection with Racine, Wisconsin, where I grew up; Isabel did not have that connection but was a worthy project in any case.
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