| Hull #: 408 | Year Built: 1972 | Location: Chicago, IL |
| Owners: Ray and Fern Teborek | Date: August 12, 2012 |
One day Ray Teborek called me at the office after he and his captain, Willie Lynch, visited our website and saw that Buddy and I were meeting and greeting Huckins owners around the country. Ray asked whether we would be interested in coming to Chicago — noting that along with his own two boats, two other Huckins yachts were located in the same marina. He assured us that he would happily arrange meetings with the other owners as well, and there our story begins.
Upon our arrival in Chicago, Buddy and I walked along the city's beautiful waterfront to Belmont Harbor. Willie met us at the foot of the dock and took us down to meet Ray and his wife Fern aboard their Huckins Corinthean 53. We learned that they had literally scoured the country looking at every Huckins yacht in the 50-foot range available for sale. They had visited the Huckins yard, where broker Dick Rogers showed them every available boat in the area and recommended they visit several others on the East Coast. It was in Charleston where they met their love, Lady Victoria.
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Ray and Fern walked us through the boat, explaining what they had done to make her young again. Fern said that when she saw Lady Victoria for the first time, she loved the interior so much that she decided to change very little of it. For Ray, the makeover was a different story altogether. With the help of Captain Willie, a good boat yard and an excellent carpenter, they began remaking her into the lighter, nimbler Huckins she once was. They removed the 6-71 TI engines and stripped out old, extraneous wiring. After cleaning and painting the engine room, they repowered with lightweight Yanmar 480hp engines. The carpenter installed new, lightweight engine hatches and replaced much of the yacht's old and gouged mahogany trim. Once new hull paint was added…voila!…she was beautiful.
Ray named his new Huckins Northern Light because he promised his wife he would one day take her to see the aurora borealis.
Keep your Huckins light! Do not overload her and she'll respond with better performance and fuel economy.
Of course, Buddy poked his head into all the bilges and spaces but he came up smiling because everything was perfect.
| Hull #: 330 | Year Built: 1958 | Location: Chicago, IL |
| Owners: Ray and Fern Teborek | Date: August 12, 2012 |
No surprise, then, to learn that the Teboreks weren't satisfied with possessing just one Huckins. Owning one of our boats gets in your blood, and for Ray and Fern that goes double. When asked why he wanted two Huckins yachts, Ray replied that he was looking toward the future. He told me that when they got too old to handle the 53-footer they would simply move down to "the little one," a Sportsman 34 purchased from Mike Muessel, at that time a two-Huckins owner himself.
When Buddy and I met with Ray, he was in the process of giving the smaller yacht its own facelift. The Sportsman was already repowered by Mike Muessel, so Ray put his carpenter to work on a new hard top and other improvements still in progress at the time of our visit. Meanwhile, the boat is used by Ray and Fern's two children, avid sailors who love to watch weekend fireworks displays aboard the aptly-named Night Light.
