Boats are in Michael Cooke’s blood. They always have been.

He spent many of his summers at his family cottage on Georgian Bay where his grandfather built cedar strip and mahogany plank wooden boats. This inspired his love for wooden boats and sailboats.

Things could have been very different for Cooke. Although boats have always been a passion, he chose to pursue a different career. He is a graduate of agricultural school in New Liskeard and worked in the Vineland Agricultural Station doing agricultural technology. He could not get being out on the water out of his blood and became a boat builder’s apprentice in Rockport, Maine in 1989.

Originally from St. Catharines, he came to Huntsville when he was nine years old. When he finished his apprenticeship he returned home and decided to start work on a small sailboat. He was also working on a number of friends’ boats when he got a call from Tim Doyle from the Muskoka Marine Museum to do some small projects. From there worked for Paul Hunter and Dick Perdue of Blackbird Boats, and then in 2002 started his own business, Cheetah Marine in Burk’s Falls, north of Huntsville.

He works his magic out of his home and workshop in this neck of the woods on Pevensey Road, Burk’s Falls. This past winter he worked on a 1949, 22-foot Greavette Streamliner, giving it a mini facelift and a re-varnish job. The family who owns this boat uses it all the time and is always out on the lake when the weather is nice. It has a few dock dings, like many wooden boats, and even the family dog goes for cruises, leaving an odd claw mark behind. It is a family-friendly craft and not a show boat.

Now he is working on a 1934 Gar Wood hardtop and in his other workshop, the work ahead is starting to pile up.

“I get my business from word of mouth and happy customers,” said Cooke.

The Gar Wood will get a complete strip, re-wiring and wood work. He is an engine mechanic so he can do practically anything. No job is too small.

Cooke is also a boat lover that hates to see old craft go to waste — no matter what condition they are in. Walking the property Cooke shows off a collection which, to the untrained eye, is just piles of firewood. To Cooke they are a Richardson and a Grew that are waiting to be hauled away by anyone who wants a unique flower planter and conversation piece. He recently worked on a Seabird, stripped the engine, the hardware and made it a carcass so it could become a flower planter.

Some people have criticized the new uses he finds for boats that cannot be restored to their full glory, but Cooke says at least they are not burned. They can continue being on show, as a planter or wood for frames for pictures or magnificent restorations.

Cooke is extremely multi-talented and his background being out on Georgian Bay, his experience with top boat builders and his education have resulted in a savvy business enterprise. It is said that “cheetahs never prosper” but in this case, Cheetah Marine is ready to prove that ditty wrong.