WHEN TIME STANDS STILL

I grew up watching old wooden boats gracefully ply the aqua-marine waters of Lake George, New York. My dad and I looked on with envy as single- and double-cockpit runabouts cruised along the rocky shore, their American flags whipping in the wind. We dreamed of what it might be like to own one. “Some day,” my dad would say. But it was never more than a fantasy.

Recently, when I gingerly stepped aboard a 42-foot reproduction Hacker-Craft in Alexandria Bay, New York, it was like déjà vu. Only this time, I was the one on board and everyone was staring at me.

Peter Mellon, founder of Antique Boat America, a brokerage for classic and antique boats, gets this a lot. A gregarious man with an impeccable memory who has lived in the Thousand Islands Region all his life, he meets the open-mouthed stares of marina passerby with a warm smile and a wave. He jokes that it’s his two golden retrievers that people are