Alan Furth: A man and his boat

Editor’s note: Longtime Bay Area resident Alan Furth’s boats are featured in this year’s 41st annual Tahoe Coucours d’Elegance. I met Alan, the “super collector” of antique boats, when I worked at The San Francisco Chronicle in the mid-’80s. I interviewed him about his boat collection and also wrote about the Southern Pacific Railway, where he was in management, including serving as president.

I just picked up a program this morning from the boat show, where our magazine is a participant. It includes a well-written article about Alan, as well as his comments. Furth died in 1993.

“When I was a kid, my family didn’t have a boat. I thought that was terrible, and I set out to rectify it.

“I started collecting fairly standard things, Higgins, Chris Crafts … I was trying to collect one of everything. I didn’t have. I got past 70 boats for a while. then I started looking only for hosts that are unique in type or in history.

“So far as I know, no one sets out with a deliberate goal of collecting enough classics to form a small armada. It just sort of happens or at least it did so in my case.

“The reasons for collecting, which I think are important, are, first, an admiration of beauty; secondly, a respect for and attitude of curiosity about boats which are truly unique, and thirdly, an appreciation and respect for some of the early workmanship that went into the older boats.

“From my standpoint, it is the feeling that these classic boats are truly beautiful that makes me interested in them. And the fact that there are so many with different patterns which make them diverse and distinctively attractive – and by that I mean the wood itself. The hull design contours, the hull fittings, the instrumentation, the ingenious seat arrangements and storage facilities; those are that things that keep me collecting. The variety is infinite and that leads to the feeling that no collector will ever have everything worth collecting.”

-Alan Furth

(From the program guide of the 41st annual Tahoe Concours d’Elegance).
(Photo: WoodyBoater.com and SierraCulture.com)

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