Wooden-boat exhibit among highlights at Chicago Boat Show

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Updated: February 16, 2012 8:18AM

Bill Gage leaped up and down on a mahogany counter
inside the wooden boat Major Kinzie.

‘‘You could dance to the B-52’s on this,’’ he said Thursday, the opening day of the Chicago Boat, Sports & RV Show.

Roam if you want to. Roam around the world.

This is the greatest weekend to explore the outdoors shows around Chicago. The Boat Show (ChicagoBoatShow.com) is at McCormick Place North through Monday, with the new final day as an experiment. Three other shows run through Sunday: The All-Canada Show (allcanada.com) is at
Pheasant Run in St. Charles, the Chicago Muskie Show (chicagomuskieshow.com) is at Harper College in Palatine and the Northwest Indiana Steelheaders Spring Fever Outdoor Show (nwisteelheaders.org) is at Marquette Mall in Michigan City, Ind.

The hit of opening day at the Boat Show was the Evolution of Boat Building. It was presented by Gage Marine, of which Gage is president.

The exhibit walks through building a wooden boat. It opens with 1964 wooden frames, which Gage found hidden in a loft; to an unfinished boat from 1965 he found in storage; to an early wooden boat that originally sold for about $4,000 and now is worth more than $50,000; to Major Kinzie, a 2011 Gage-Hacker by Van Dam wooden boat with only 16 hours on it that is worth about 10 times that.

As a promise to his late father, Gage revived the Gage-Hacker tradition of boat-building. Major Kinzie is the sixth made, including the prototype, since the tradition was revived in 2006. Five of those six are on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.

Listen, I come from the other side of the tracks. Normally, something worth that much would make me want to spit. But it’s so damm beautiful, you can’t help but be drawn in.

Gage spent an hour walking and talking me through the exhibit, chatting up customers and potential customers all the while. I watched the reactions of others passing by in the aisles.

They turned in, as though drawn by some mysterious power, then almost all instinctively reached out to touch the boats. There’s power in well-crafted wood, especially wood crafted for some 6,000
man-hours.

And talk about details. Seats are covered in an artificial leather that doesn’t burn in the sun. The wood floors have a basket-weave. There’s enough power (800-horsepower) in the twin Ilmore engines to push the boat to 55 mph. There’s James Bond gadgetry behind the console. A cooler is hidden discreetly under a seat.

Modern wooden boats have come a long way. The cold-molding process allows wood to be sealed inside and out.

‘‘It is like Willy Wonka and the Gobstoppers,’’ Gage said. ‘‘They are designed to last longer than ourselves or our customers.’’

The woods are primarily Honduran or African mahogany. The Honduran tends to have a straighter grain, but even it is untamed.

‘‘It’s a natural, living thing,’’ Gage said. ‘‘There’s variety.’’

That applies to the wooden boats, too.

‘‘They should have good curves, like a good sculpture or a runway model,’’ Gage said.

Curves look good, but they also have practical uses, such as fanning spray away from the boat and allowing it to cut through water.

A guy in a Blackhawks cap, holding a plastic cup with a rum and Coke, looked inside Major Kinzie and said: ‘‘This is awesome.’’

That’s it.