The original Stan-Craft prototype torpedo-style runabout was designed and built by Stanley Young in Seattle, Washington in 1943-1944.  Stan Young had moved with his family from Polson, Montana on Flathead Lake, to Seattle to manage the boatbuilding opeartions at Shain's Boat Yard during World War II.  While managing the operations at Shain's, Stan supervised the construction of many 26' through 65' military vessels that proved to be very valuable to the War effort.  The design and construction of the prototype torpedo was a welcome creative outlet from the focused wartime effort, and Stan was anxious to produce more more torpedos after the War. 

 

The original prototype was powered by a Chris Craft 6 cylinder K engine: most of the hardware on the prototype was Chris Craft issue as well.  Stan named the first torpedo "Joysid" after his two children, daughter Joy and son Sydney.  Figure 1 at the left shows Stan at the wheel taking Joysid through her paces on Lake Washington near Seattle, Washington.

 

"Joysid" was originally promised to Mr. Alton Pearce, a Pharmacist in Kalispell, Montana, whom Stan had known for many years.  However, in an interesting twist, Stan actually sold Joysid to a car dealer in Seattle just before returning home to Flathead Lake in Montana.  With Joysid loaded with family possessions for the move back to Polson after the War, Stan had to sheepishly call Alton Pearce to say that a car dealer had made an offer for Joysid that he simply could not refuse!  Would Alton wait for Stan to build a new and improved torpedo immediately upon his return to Montana?  Alton reluctantly agreed and the original torpedo remained in Washington.

 

With the War over and his work completed in Seattle, Stan returned to Flathead Lake in Montana, setting up his boatbuilding shop in Lakeside.  Because of his work with the military during the War, Stan had access to "strategic war materials" including mahogany and other hardwoods, materials that many other boat builders simply could not get.  In fact, even Chris Craft, that had certainly been active in providing boats for the War effort, was forced to offer painted runabouts beacuase of the severe shortage of mahogany and other premium hardwoods.  In his book The Legend of Chris-Craft, aothor Jeffrey Rodengren makes an interesting point about the 1946 Chris-Craft product lineup: "An interesting thing about the advertising copy for the 1946 line is the curious lack of any mention of construction materials.  The word mahogany doesn't appear anywhere, nor is any other type of wood suggeted or specified.  The truth is, many of the postwar boats were built of cedar, or any other wood they could find.  Lumber of all descriptions would remain difficult to acquire in quantities for nearly two full years ..." 

 

Making good on his promise to Alton Pearce, Stan immediately began work on the secound topredo prototype.  The lofting plans for the revised prototype are shown in Figure 2.  A redesigned bow and an experimetal look at sponsons for additional wetted surface at the stern are shown in the line designs shown in Figure 2 at left (how many boats have the original loft design from its creator?).

 

Taking advantage of a favored position on formerly "war" materials, Stan elected to build the second torpdeo with the best mahogany he had above the chines, and Alaskan yellow cedar for the bottom and framing.  Although the mahogany Stan chose was well-suited to the complex, compound curves of the torpedo shape, this material was scarce and very expensive at the time.

 

Figure 3 shows Big Sky under construction in Stan's shop.  Note the severe curvatute in the framing and planks for Big Sky.  In order to achieve the curves, the planks were steamed and screwed into place. Very few shops were capable of such construction in 1946.  

 

Finally, the day arrived!  Big Sky is delivered to the Pearce's dock on Flathead Lake.  Figue 4 is the original photograph from delivery day taken by Stan Young.  On the dock are Alton Pearce (kneeling), his wife (standing in the dark slacks), and Stan Young's wife, "Dodi" Young, in the white 1940's bathing suit.  The Pearce kids are in the boat excited about getting on the Lake.  Mike Pearce, who provided this photo and other priceless details about the early days of Big Sky, is the young man on the port side of the boat in the rear seat.

 

Note that the original name of Big Sky was "77-II".  This original name was derived from the phone number of the Pearce Pharmacy in Kalispell, "77", and the fact that this was the second Pearce family boat to have that name.  It's hard to imagine in this day of 10 digit phone numbers that at one point anyone in Kalispell could reach the Pearce Pharmacy by simply dialing "77".

    

All of the hardware on Big Sky today is original.  One of the most unusual pieces of hardware on the boat is the the ski tow, designed by Stan Young and added later upon a special request by Alton Pearce when water skiing became popular in the 1950's.  The windshield was custom designed by Stan and was produced by a small company in Kalispell, Montana.  Another interesting piece of "hardware" was the rope ladder that Stan designed to allow skiers reasonable access to the boat from the water over the slippery curves of the torpedo transom.

 

Big Sky was originally fitted with a Gray Marine racing "Fireball" engine taken from one of Stan's racing boats.  Because engines were difficult to acquire immediately after the war, in order to meet the delivery he had promised to Alton Pearce, Stan had to "lift" the racing Fireball and fit it into the tight engine space on Big Sky. Notches in the deck indicate that this was not an easy fit.  The engine fitted produced 190 horse power, making it one of the fastest boats on Flathead Lake at the time.  The Fireball engine featured 3 carburetors and many racing components.  The engine was marked at the Gray Marine factory as "experimental".

 

Like many wooden boats after many years of use, Big Sky fell into neglect. A host of cosmetic and structural changes had been made. Bill Redmond purchased Big Sky from the Pearce family in 1976. Nine years later, Alan Furth purchased the boat from Bill and brought Big Sky to Lake Tahoe. Figure 5 shows Big Sky being delivered in 1985.  Alan began the first phase of restoration work on Big Sky several years later.  

 

​When it became time for Alan to trim his holdings of several hundred boats, Bob Boldt was very lucky to be invited to make an offer for Alan's boats.  Bob immediately focused on Big Sky, purchased the boat in 1991, and the rest is history.  Big Sky has been restored several times, by Tony Brown, and most recently, by Syd Young (Stan Young's son) and the professional team at the thriving StanCraft Boat Company in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  The original father-son team of Stan and Syd Young is shown in Figure 6 at the left.

 

After being restored to her original excellence, Big Sky has won many awards.  She has won numerous class awards at many Tahoe Concours events since being restored in 1993, has won the prestigous "Thunderbird Trophy" for unique design at the Tahoe Concours, the "Corinthian Award" for excellence in design at the Keels and Wheels Concours in Clear Lake (near Houston) Texas, and most importantly, has won more than 10 "Peoples' Choice" awards at multiple Councours events, including more Peoples' Choice awards than any other boat in history at the Tahoe Concours events (see the Award History section of this website).  Big Sky was also honored as the feature boat in the July 1999 issue of Classic Boating; the cover shot is shown as Figure 7.  Big Sky is in far better condition today than she was upon delivery to Flathead Lake in 1946.