Boat collectors really know craft Antique boat collectors meet in Salem where their prized craft were made.

By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
SALEM -- Doug Comstock brought his most cherished family heirloom to Salem for the weekend, and it attracted plenty of interest on the highways between here and his home in Memphis, Tenn.
Comstock's prized possession, a cherry red, antique speedboat, was one of several vintage crafts on display Saturday at the second annual Mullins Homecoming Meet in Centennial Park, part of the park's annual antique show and sale. The meet continues today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Guilford Lake State Park.
"On the highways, people drive alongside of me and stare," he said with a grin. "It gets to be a problem when you're trying to get off and they're blocking the exit."
Organized by the Mullins Boat Club of Salem, the meet celebrates the steel and wood boats the Mullins Co. of Salem made here from 1894 to 1934. Once the world's largest boat maker, the company produced more than 100,000 before it moved to Oil City, Pa., in the mid-1930s.
Proudly displayed
For Comstock, the meet is a chance to visit with other Mullins owners and to show off his 1930s-vintage Mullins Sea Eagle. "It's been done, and redone, and redone," he said, pointing out the shiny, enameled exterior and the carefully detailed engine parts.
All the work has paid off -- the boat sold for $1,195 new, Comstock's dad paid $400 for it in 1949, and he guesses it's probably worth $15,000 to $20,000. But that's not the point, he said.
"To me, it's priceless. It's a family heirloom," he said.
Salem native David Dufresne, founder and president of the Mullins Boat Club, said most local residents have heard of the Mullins Co. but few know that it manufactured boats. The company was best known for its steel kitchen cabinets, manufactured under the name Youngstown Kitchens, and for making historical statues.
Started with engines
Dufresne collected antique outboard engines until about four years ago when a local business owner passed along an e-mail from someone seeking information on the Mullins boat engine.
Intrigued, Dufresne started to research the boat maker, then put together a Web site featuring articles, photographs and facts about the Mullins plant and its products. Soon he was getting e-mails from other Mullins collectors.
Now the club has 41 members from all over the United States and Canada. Anyone who pays the $15 annual dues and has an interest in Mullins boats can join.
So far, he knows of 75 Mullins boats still in existence. The farthest one registered with the group is in Norway.
Dufresne has three Mullinses -- a 1926 twin outboard that was once used to tow water skiers at Cypress Gardens, Fla., a 1929 Steel King outboard and a 1926 red outboard.
He's also refurbishing an 1899 Get There steel duck-hunter boat, the oldest craft at the meet Saturday, for a Massachusetts owner who brought it to Salem a year ago.
Stories behind the boats
Mullins owners love to tell how they found their antique craft.
Tom Fetterman, an art teacher from Cayuga, N.Y., said he spotted his 1907 Mullins Buckeye hunting and fishing boat leaning upside down at a secondhand store.
The craft was painted silver inside and out, but Fetterman noticed a small, brass identification label with the Mullins brand name and the date. Within four months he had refinished the boat in its original colors, silver on the outside, sky blue inside, with oak seats and trim.
Mark Zimmerlie, a retired teacher from Napoleon, Ohio, who owns six Mullins boats, brought along the 1910 Mullins Dinghy he found leaning against a shed outside an antique shop. It didn't have a Mullins tag on it, but the collector recognized the characteristic shape and the materials used.
Dufresne said he bought his first Mullins on eBay, the Internet auction site. "The other two found me," he joked.
This second boat came from an Erie man who contacted him after learning about the Mullins collector club, and the owner of the third one delivered it to Dufresne personally from Wisconsin. "He wanted to make sure it was in good hands," he said.
vinarsky@vindy.com