SEABUDDY
ON BOATS

Posts Tagged ‘classic boat show’

Your author was born in the fall of 1948. In the winter of 1959, Chris Craft came out with a milestone brochure cover. On it, a 19 foot Silver Arrow was the speedboat featured out in front with a background of a 18 ft Continental runabout, 33 ft. Sport Fisherman, and a 55 foot Constellation Motor Yacht framing that Silver Arrow runabout.

Saturday, October 2, 2010 – after lusting for a ride in a Silver Arrow for 51 years, I got that ride in a perfectly restored one during The Philly Chapter of the ACBS Long Level Show.

The boat was a well-built,heavy craft that shouldered tall wakes out of the picture with the deft hand on the throttle and wheel of the boat’s owner, Dick Hickman. The weather was crisp, the boat was the “looker” on Long Level Lake in PA. and a near life-time year thing was well satisfied. Boy, do I love the ACBS and its two chapter’s in the Philly area and on the Chesapeake Bay. BTW, both Dick and I are members of each chapter.

In case you forgot, a Silver Arrow Chris Craft is a planked boat with a fiberglass deck and an inner bottom of sheet plywood. She uses spruce wood in place of mahogany for planking and set the boating world on its side when she was introduced. Unfortunately, her heavy weight (about 600 lbs extra over a 18 all-wood Chris Craft), pricing (about 25% higher than a 19 ft. Capri), and some new technology (deck to hull joint) only 92 were sold over the two years of its production. And not all of those still exist.

The simultaneous starting of a couple hundred engines and sounding of boat horns marked the close of the 39^th annual United States Powerboat Show in Annapolis Sunday evening.  A weekend of glorious weather followed the first day of rain, and people came out by the thousands to tour these magnificent boats.  Attendance more than doubled the rain-soaked 2009 show and rivaled the numbers of 2008, making this one of the best attendance years in the event’s history.

“This industry needed a shot in the arm and a signal that the worst of the sales slump is behind us,” said Paul Jacobs, General Manager of United States Yacht Shows, producers of the event.  “Large enthusiastic crowds, along with the many boats being sold over the four-day event could be a sign that the recovery has begun.  We certainly hope that is the case.  It felt like a far more positive mood among sellers and buyers than the past two years.”

Show Manager, Dee Newman, reported that “Boats of all sizes and styles were sold this year, according to our exhibitors.  Everything from runabouts to trawlers, and tugs to express cruisers shared in the success.  Many sea trials are scheduled to take place in the next few days,” she added.  “We are very happy for them.”

After two consecutive weekends of shows, the Annapolis Boat Shows crew began the daunting task of removing a city of tents and a marina of floating docks.  In just three days, 300 docks will be towed away and hauled out of the water for storage.  Sixty temporary pilings will be pulled from the harbor.  Two hundred and fifty tents, six hundred tent floors, and miles of electrical cable will be removed and put in storage for another year, awaiting next year’s extravaganza.  By Wednesday evening there will be no remaining indication that an event even took place here.  Only a fond memory of 90,000 people having toured hundreds of boats and over 1,100 exhibitors will remain; that and an estimated 60 million dollar economic impact to local business, non-profit organizations, and the state and local governments. 

this wood Lyman boat cruiser may not be at the show

The Lyman Boat Owners Association is proud to host:

11th Annual

All Classics Festival

“A Celebration of Classic Boats & Cars”

August 20-22, 2010

(Classic Car Cruise-In August 21 @ 11:00 am)

Huron Municipal Marina, Huron, Ohio

Read the rest of this entry »

This Connecticut based, Canadian built wood classic boat was the one that the Judges selected for their own CHOICE. The Judges Choice Award is a top honor at the Chesapeake Bay Chapter – ACBS 11 acres of classic Wood Boats and other festival events that was held over father’s day weekend in the 18 acres of grounds of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD.

Shepherd at classic boat show

Chris’ Shepherd, at 22’, is the larger and more luxurious of the two sizes that Shepherd offered in 1961, with a rear mounted Chrysler Hemi engine that is the top power using a v-drive to get the power reversed so the prop shaft can be under the boat. Smooth and fast, the boat is perfectly matched with the V-8 “Hemi” marine power.

Shepherd’s Boats, made their fine craft during the time she was hand crafted, in Canada, at Niagara-On-The-Lake in the province of Ontario. The 7’ 4”beam boat features all mahogany planking. Double (two layers) on the bottom, with one layer on the sides backed up with battens behind the plank seams. Look at the photos, she looks like she was carved, not assembled with screws and bolts.

1961 Shepherd V-drive

Shepherd’s Boats, made their fine craft during the time she was hand crafted, in Canada, at Niagara-On-The-Lake in the province of Ontario. The 7’ 4”beam boat features all mahogany planking. Double (two layers) on the bottom, with one layer on the sides backed up with battens behind the plank seams. Look at the photos, she looks like she was carved, not assembled with screws and bolts.

The Shepherds started their company in 1928. they moved the plant to be closer to the water in 1939. The family sold the business to a private individual in the late 1950s. He ran the company with the same attention to detail until 1966, when Trojan Boat Company, from the USA, bought Shepherd  to import the Sheherds to the US and build popular Trojan models in Canada. Trojan was into Cabin Cruisers more than runabouts and re-shaped Shepherd into that mold. Shepherd went on to built up to 54’ in length yachts using fiberglass hulls. By the late 1970s, things had changed for Canadian Boat Builders. These changes caused Shepherd Boats to close its doors in early 1978.

 Buildt a Shady Side Bateau from Memory. This waterman from Shady Side, MD built his 36 ’ Bateau in 2009,  “Emmaline“, from scratch and without any plans. His turning over story on this boat in his garage.

…with their boats at a Classic Boat Show and afternoon Classic Boat River Lake Cruise

Save the date, Saturday, 10/2/2010 and for more info about this PA event call Brian Gagnon at (856) 596-3390 ext 2224. Note: if Brian is in town, he’ll get right back to you. If he is traveling, just wait a few days, he’ll get bak to you. If its two weeks and you still did not hear back from him, call again, as your message got lost somewhere.

…Was a 80 foot Trumpy made in Annapolis, MD in 1947. Privately owned and not chartered, she cruises the West coast of FL in the winter, the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay in early summer, and then with several runs up to and around the water of New England later in the year. She is a family “cruiser”, and does a lot of cruising.

While the crew does much of the maintenance, Moore Marine out of Rivera Beach, FL.did some below deck accommodation changes a few years back to make her a better fit the yacht to her owners.

Owned by a practicing attorney and his wife in D C, who spent most of his youth growing up in Baltimore, she a user yacht that is also a yacht at home as the center piece of a classic boat show.

Similar sized perfect pieces of the history of Annapolis and boating charter out for $25,000 per week plus crew, meals, and food costs.

Note, inconsideration of the owners’ privacy, seabuddy choose to edit out the owners names and information when blogging about such a treasure.

Sorry for the photo quality, she passed my photo boat to port and seabuddy was forced to shoot into the sunset.

This 1968 Matthews Cruiser won the category trophy for “Most Original- ACBS” in the Chesapeake Bay Chapter-ACBS Boat Festival at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD.

Matthews Yachts were wood boats from 1890 to 1968-1969. They were yachts with fiberglass hulls made in England (Halmatic brand) and fitted out in the USA by Matthews Yachts in Port Clinton, Ohio from 1969 till the business closed in 1975. Matthews Yachts had been in Port Clinton since 1906. The Port Clinton property never did make boats / yachts again.

Famous Matthews boats / yachts over the years was  a gas engine (16 Hp) powered 35’ that set a world record for a small, gas powered boat for crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 1911-1912.

The Matthews Company built a 50’ boat for the Ringling Bros. family to use in Sarasota, FL in 1912.

By 1913, Matthews built a 110’ yacht from the design board of famous yacht designer John Wells. This diesel powered yacht was the largest yacht ever built by Matthews.

During and between the world wars, they built airplane parts, meat cutters, 110’ sub chasers, and a custom yacht or two.

They went from custom, one-off yachts to production power boats in 46’ and 32’ sizes. They also offered a sail boat.

Around 1951 the Yacht builder did a wildly successful 42’ double cabin that started a boat style and accommodations trend.

Next the 45’ wood boat  was the standard bearer for the Matthews Company and it was the model for the 46’ fiberglass boats. The company did a 56’ themselves in several styles, but the sales order book did not respond.