By FLC & WCCB member Bob Korts

FLASH BACK! That's what this story is all about -- a 26-ft. Chris-Craft named FLASH built in 1926, and a trip back in time. My wife, Janet, and I are new to this story, having only owned FLASH since September 2004. So, let's start there       .   Bob & Janet Korts aboard their U-22

For us the story began on Friday night, September 17, 2004, at the Wine Country Chapter's (WCCB) fall cruise cocktail party at Bonnie Castle in the Thousand Islands. Mo Sherrill (an ACBS Founder) was on the cruise along with Janet and me, and during the course of the evening I sat down to chat with Mo. In that conversation I asked him about his boat, OPUS III, and, in particular, if she had been sold. Mo had purchased FLASH in 1970, and renamed her OPUS III. (More about that later.). Mo replied that he thought the boat was sold but that nothing had been signed yet, and he had not seen any money. I asked where the boat was going and Mo said, "To Florida." That bothered Janet and me since we knew the boat had spent many years on Canandaigua Lake as FLASH before and after Mo had owned her, and we remembered her last day out on September 15, 2001, during the WCCB fall trip to Lake George. During the night, Janet and I each had independently concluded that it would be wrong for Flash to go to Florida. In the morning Janet commented, "Someone on Canandaigua Lake should buy Flash and bring her home." After brainstorming who that "someone" might be, we decided that it might be us. The funny part of this story is that we had never talked about owning a triple cockpit and really had no desire to own one. We were very happy with our 1950 U-22, the perfect boat for our needs. That morning I talked to Mo again and told him that if his deal was not finalized, we would buy OPUS III, take her back to Canandaigua Lake, and rename her FLASH. He made a call to the broker in Florida who was handling the deal and ten minutes later he told me that we were the proud owners of a new boat.

The following Saturday, WCCB member Mike Yonker traveled with me to Queensbury, NY to help haul FLASH back to South Bristol, NY for her relaunch party on Sunday, September 19, 2004. What a great day! Patty Steele had sent out e-mails to many of our friends telling them about the launching, and we were met by newspaper reporters, about half a dozen boats and many friends that Sunday morning. One person came up to me and introduced himself as David Senn, the son of the boat's original owner, Eugene Senn. He had heard about our relaunch party from Mo and he just showed up. The next day a lengthy article appeared in the Canandaigua Messenger announcing that "THE FLASH IS BACK!"

We backed FLASH down the ramp, started her up, checked to make sure she was pumping water and backed her off the trailer. And then we were off. About a half mile from the ramp she was up on plane and everything seemed OK until Janet said she could smell something hot. We throttled down and went slowly back to our boat house. A quick check showed the crank case was full of oil and water; not a good thing! Nevertheless, we partied but we were disappointed there could be no boat rides. FLASH had to be pulled out for repairs. The following spring, without as much fanfare, FLASH was launched again after having her engine rebuilt over the winter. She now runs like the thoroughbred she is.

Thanks to Mo Sherrill and David Senn we can flash back to the colorful history of FLASH. David told us that Eugene Senn purchased two 1926/27, 26-ft. triples and named them both FLASH. We know what happened to the one we own but not the other. From newspaper articles it appears the boats were used for the transportation of illegal booze from Canada to Irondequoit Bay east of Rochester off Lake Ontario where Senn had a boathouse. Remember, 1926 was right in the middle of Prohibition (1920-1933) and there was a lot of money to be made with a large fast boat. According to the newspaper, one of the boats was once firebombed by rival rumrunners, and Mo believes it was our FLASH.

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