30 June 2017
It‘s time again for the annual WoodenBoat Show, which starts today at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut. Göran R Buckhorn writes:
If you are like me, that is, somewhere in New England, an Atlantic Ocean away from the small town of Henley-on-Thames, where there is a famous rowing regatta going on right now, and you do not want to sit indoors staring at the Henley races on your computer – honestly, it’s never the same, however many Pimm’s you drink in front of the screen – you should instead turn your nose in the direction of the small village of Mystic, and the 26th annual WoodenBoat Show.
This three-day festival, which is produced by WoodenBoat Publications, Inc., and hosted by Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut, between Friday 30 June and Sunday 2 July, will offer all the usual things that you would expect from the largest wooden boat show in the USA. More than 100 traditional and classic wooden vessels are on display at the 19-acre Mystic Seaport, everything from small canoes and row boats to cruising yachts, and there will be workshops and demonstrations. Some 100 vendors will stand ready to sell everything you need – and don’t need – varnish, tools, boating clothes (including shoes), books, jewelry, paint, sails, prints, photographs and more. And yes, of course, boats, already built ones or building kits, if you are handy enough to pull that off (sadly, I’m not).
At the workshops and demonstrations in the museum’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard, you will get an insight into the necessary skills of blacksmithing, dory planking, caulking, Viking boatbuilding, how to work with an adze and wood-epoxy boatbuilding. In the Shipyard right now Mayflower II is being restored by the amazingly skilled shipwrights. The vessel, launched in England in 1957, belongs to Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. She is staying at the museum for a period of 30 months and will be ready to sail back to Plymouth in 2020 to celebrate the Pilgrims arrival to the New World 400 years ago. During the WoodenBoat Show visitors will be able to tour the vessel.
Also this year, I intend to especially look for rowing related subjects at the show and an article on my finds will be published later next week.
More on the WoodenBoat Show here.
Tagged: Draken Harald Hårfagre, Mayflower II, Mystic River, Mystic Seaport, wooden boats, WoodenBoat Show
