The DUKE PLAYMATE In 1933 John Stevenson of Beaumaris, Ontario asked Duke Boats of Port Carling to build him a deluxe fishing boat. Duke took the design of the disappearing Propeller Boat and widened it, squared the stern and installed a 15HP motor. They called it the Playmate. The Playmate line was so popular that over the years more than 150 were built with minor changes along the way, first it was a centre drive and later a front drive. The first Playmate was powered by a Buchanan Baby Four 15 horsepower motor converted from an Austin car. Four of these models were built in 1934. At the time the Playmate was a 19-foot (5.8 m) wooden lapstrake rounded-bottom hull. It was later powered by a Buchanan Midget 25- horsepower inboard engine. The boat was redesigned in 1939 with forward seats and a windshield, along with a slightly higher hull, which was the configuration it retained for the rest of the production run. The company halted pleasure boat construction in 1942 to concentrate on producing whalers and cutters for the military, but restarted building after the war. Playmate production ceased in 1953. Charlie Duke died in 1954. PROVENANCE OF PATIENCE Standard Playmate #4804 was constructed at Duke Boatworks in Port Carling. It is 18 foot long with mahogany on oak and a lapstrake hull. It cost $850 new with a Buchanan Midget engine. In 1948 Patience was purchased by a N.E McLeod who lived in Kitchener with a summer home at Walker’s Point on Lake Muskoka. Around 1968 it was found languishing in storage at Mortimers Point Marina by Rev. John E Hunter, Stan Hunter’s uncle. He enjoyed the boat for about 10 years. J.E. Hunter sold the boat to Allan Moses. Allan Moses was living Port Carling. He knew John Hunter and was a good customer of Duke Boats. He acquired the boat and repowered it with a Universal Atomic 4 motor which is a more modern marine engine similar to the Buchannan Midget but with an alternator instead of a generator. Mr. Moses, a businessman and past chairman of the Ontario Housing Corporation, had at least three Duke playmate boats when he approached Stan Hunter to sell Patience for him some years later. In 2003 Bob Lehman and his wife Joan thought to wet their feet in wood boating. The boat moved to Lake of Bays. Five years later they found the boat a little limited in size and speed and opted for another larger launch. Stan Hunter had by this time initiated the Muskoka Launch Livery, a small launch rental operation based on Lake Muskoka. The Lehman’s left Patience in Stan’s care to be part of the Livery fleet. Stan maintained, repaired and rented the boat to various customers over nearly twenty years. In 2025 Stan finds himself approaching retirement and is no longer able to insure a rental fleet as the insurance business has evolved. He finds himself long on small launches. Powered by a 20- hp motor, the boat is ideal for a leisurely tour of the lakes. “The slower the boat, the larger the lake,” Hunter quipped. “It can be more rewarding.” What better way to find a new life for Patience than to support Simcoe Muskoka United Way's programs in Muskoka?