When it's this cold outside, you may be dreaming of a warmer season. How about summer on the lake?
Even though our lakes are frozen solid, that isn't stopping one Eau Claire man from focusing on his summer-time inspired source of pride: His classic Chris-Craft wooden boat.

It's cold outside, no doubt. But inside Howard Lehman's garage, it's warm, like the toffee-colored mahagony gleaming inside it, "this is a collectible boat," says Lehman.

Lehman, a retired music teacher, now plays the part of wooden boat restorer.

This is his ninth.

Lehman says, "I love working on them more than I love driving them."

His latest project, a 17-foot Chris-Craft Deluxe Runabout Barrelback, cost $1,645.00 when it was new back in 1941. Lehman says, "these boats, when restored are worth $40,000 dollars."

Lehman spent hundreds of hours sanding and shining up this prize. It took a year to just to plan his attack.

He says Chris-Craft only made 425 of these, he doesn't know how many still exist. He found this one on E-bay out at Lake Tahoe in 2004, "hasn't been in the water for 10 years."

He says the true test will be when he does put it in the water, which he hopes to do this summer, "when people see these boats they say, well ya don't pu them in the water, but you do. They are meant to be in the water."

And this one was meant to be in the spotlight, and it was last week. It was featured in the Minneapolis Boat Show. Lehman says he loves to share his passion for these pieces of history with others, especially his son. Fitting, because he learned it from his father.

Lehman says he hopes to organize a wooden boat show in the Chippewa Valley some day and would like to give speed boat rides eventually as well.