THE BURNHAM BY GRAND CRAFT

Our former colleague Peter Egan once wrote in Cycle World, our former sister publication, that his favorite motorcycles "give good garage," meaning they are so aesthetically pleasing that he is satisfied to just sit in his shop and look at them during the long Wisconsin winter.

- Charles Plueddeman

We get it. Our favorite boats combine competent function with graceful lines-they give good dock. And so, we were drawn to the Burnham, a new handcrafted wooden runabout from Grand Craft. From the curve of its prow to its tumblehome aft, the look is Great Lakes classic. This boat was not shaped to pop out of a mold. And any boat made of wood is unique simply because the tone and grain of each piece of planking is unique.

The beauty of classic wood boats always sparked childhood memories for Patrick Gallagher, who spent his youth boating in his family's Streblow runabout. In 2020, at age 49, Gallagher was a third-generation co-owner of Gallagher Asphalt in suburban Chicago. After 20 years and needing a change, he cashed out and in 2021, with his wife, Rose, as a partner, acquired Grand Craft, a struggling wooden boatbuilder in Holland, Michigan. He moved the company to Genoa City, Wisconsin, and began building boats using modern techniques "that don't look like the same white fiberglass minivan."