OLD-FASHIONED FORWARD

I’ll admit that when I hear the words vintage or classic used to describe a boat, I picture an impeccably refinished Chris-Craft runabout from the 1940s, mahogany and stainless gleaming. I think of an antique that’s been painstakingly preserved. I don’t think of a racing-class sailboat or a 1930s motoryacht repowered with pod drives. And I certainly don’t think of the yachting equivalent of a hot rod: a classic hull repowered with modern technology and redone with new materials that show the owner’s personal style.

Bill Morong is trying to change all that. The founder of Yachting Solutions, an all-purpose marine services provider in Maine, Morong is an enthusiastic evangelist for restomods, a term borrowed from the car world. Though his team members are involved in all types of custom builds, they particularly enjoy the “garage fun” of their restomod projects, where they use the shell of an old boat to create a new, hypercustomized craft.