Posted: 6/25/03

The Rocket is a rare find for Bruce Zemke

Joe Drennan
Staff Writer

The old saying goes one manís trash is another manís treasure. That is exactly how Bruce Zemke found his Chris Craft Rocket boat.

Zemke found the boat at a brotherís buddieís neighborís cabin. The boat had been covered with a tarp for years and was in the rotting process when Zemke came to the rescue.

Zemke had restored Chris Craft boats before, it was somewhat of a family thing. His father built a boat when Zemke was growing up in White Bear Lake, and his brother restored a Chris Craft, too.

ìIt is fun to find and restore things you can use,î Zemke said. ìI love doing this kind of stuff.î

Zemke bought the boat in 2000 thinking it was a 1951 Chris Craft Special. After letting the boat sit in his garage the first winter, Zemke went to work on it. With the help of his wife Suzan, Zemke removed the bottom of the boat.

After removing the bottom and analyzing the frame, Zemke said, ìEverything was rotted pretty bad.î

With most of the wood rotted, Zemke had to replace almost all of the framing. Before covering the new frames, he ran strings from end to end to make sure everything was smooth and in line.

As Zemke worked on the boat, he began to realize that he did not have a 1951 Special like he thought he did.

While working on the engine Zemke found an original serial number to the boat, as well as on four other spots on the boat. With the serial numbers all the same, he sent them into the Marinerís Museum in New Port, VA.

The museum sent back the original build sheet. Zemke found out the boat was finished on August 8, 1947, and was a rare Chris Craft Rocket. Only about 40 were made that year.

What made the boat so special was its color, atomic blue. Zemke was originally going to paint the boat red and white, but then decided to do some research to see what the original boat looked like.

ìThe boat came out after the war, during the atomic age,î Zemke said of his theory to why Chris Craft used the color atomic blue.

While restoring the boat, Zemke did the best he could to keep the boat original. With the help of the internet and being a member of the Bob Speltz Land-O-Lakes Classic Boat Society he was able to find anything he needed for his boat.

With the help of his friend Terry Young, Zemke was able to recover the seat cushions that were in poor shape. Yong was able to replicate the original seat cushions down to the manufacturer tags on the bottom.

Upon completion of the boat, Zemke and his wife decided to name the boat the Patriot.

ìWe kind of liked that they were celebrating the of World War II when they built the boat, and with what has happened recently, we came up with the name Patriot,î Zemke said.

Zemke spent three years restoring the boat. ìHe spent every waking minute on it,î Zemkeís wife said. ìOn Motherís Day he gave me one kiss and the boat two.î

The boat will be in the Fourth of July parade here.

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