Madisonville WoodenBoat Festival
by Ken Abrahams

Had a great time today. Very good festival. Attached is a sampling of the activities. The Quick and Dirty BoatBuilding Contest does the building on Saturday and races them on Sunday. Thousands of people show up for beer drinking and enjoying the wood boats.

WoodBoat01.jpg (50653 bytes)
Nice Planked Skiff

WoodBoat02.jpg (53972 bytes)
Old Lap Strake Runabout

WoodBoat03.jpg (49070 bytes)
Old plywood runabout
Woodboat04.jpg (51030 bytes)
Old racing engines and raceboat
Woodboat05.jpg (68166 bytes)
Hot old racing hydro with Merc.
WoodBoat06.jpg (53580 bytes)
Beautiful strip planked sailboat, from Dallas area.
WoodBoat07.jpg (48338 bytes)
Small lap strake by same builder as 06
WoodBoat08.jpg (55311 bytes)
Nice Sloop with motor in well
WoodBoat09.jpg (52186 bytes)
Runabout, River in background is lined with big wooden cruisers and sailboats
WoodBoat10.jpg (44069 bytes)
Huge skiff
WoodBoat11.jpg (51390 bytes)
Misc
WoodBoat12.jpg (55069 bytes)
Misc
WoodBoat13.jpg (61102 bytes)
More Misc. boats
WoodBoat14.jpg (53455 bytes)
Strip Planked Canoe
WoodBoat15.jpg (50347 bytes)
Runabouts on a trailer
WoodBoat16.jpg (45072 bytes)
Misc. in the water
WoodBoat17.jpg (47093 bytes)
Another NICE Canoe
WoodBoat18.jpg (59039 bytes)
Racing Shell
WoodBoat19.jpg (50880 bytes)
Mahogany Runabout
WoodBoat20.jpg (53715 bytes)
Guideboat and canoe
WoodBoat21.jpg (52245 bytes)
Punt
WoodBoat22.jpg (48538 bytes)
Old Runabout
WoodBoat23.jpg (56157 bytes)
Racing boat again
WoodBoat24.jpg (51996 bytes)
Lapstrake runabout
UniqueBow01.jpg (41653 bytes)
Kayak for south Louisiana
UniqueBow02.jpg (46113 bytes)
same, overall view
WoodBoat25.jpg (44062 bytes)
Another Nice Canoe
WoodBoat26.jpg (53825 bytes)
Higgins Runabout, Higgins of New Orleans built the thousands of Higgins Landing Craft used in WWII, Supposedly won the war for US
WoodBoat27.jpg (49869 bytes)
Misc boats
WoodBoat28.jpg (49107 bytes)
Ditto
WoodBoat29.jpg (58682 bytes)
Another Higgins
Whizzer.jpg (55067 bytes)
Motorbikes and Vespas
Shane.jpg (46152 bytes)
Shane Wallace on left
OldSwampBoat01.jpg (44796 bytes)
South Louisiana Swamp boat, Old engine, water cooled, big flywheel, reverses by changing timing and running backwards
OldSwampBoat02.jpg (52324 bytes)
More swamp boats plus an ancient 'Go-Devil' motor
OldSwampBoat03.jpg (38947 bytes)
Closeup
OldSwampBoat04.jpg (40541 bytes)
underway
Greg01.jpg (39271 bytes)
Son in Law behind his favorite, Asking $900,000

These pictures were taken Sunday. The building was on Saturday. They were rigging sails etc.. Parade at 1:15, race at 1:30. I think there were 15 entries allowed. Limited building space.

QuickDirty01.jpg (56364 bytes)
Cat
QuickDirty02.jpg (49829 bytes)
Long and slender
QuickDirty03.jpg (59665 bytes)
Most boats had Patriotic themes
QuickDirty04.jpg (51592 bytes)
Double rowing stations
QuickDirty05.jpg (57874 bytes)
A flag
QuickDirty06.jpg (51638 bytes)
Tiny sail, I think they finished last
QuickDirty07.jpg (52864 bytes)
Really nice boat
QuickDirty08.jpg (53106 bytes)
Start of the Party
QuickDirty09.jpg (51988 bytes)
Eagle Head, First to finish I think
QuickDirty10.jpg (53915 bytes)
Work of art
QuickDirty11.jpg (32453 bytes)
Another nice one, look at the sail decoration
QuickDirty12RatBoat.jpg (55860 bytes)
Swamp Rats boat, notice the Spanish Moss, These guys and girls put on costumes later, they had the MOST fun
QuickDirty13.jpg (51770 bytes)
Salty Dog, a nice dory. They were my favorites but finished 4th in the race
Parade04aStart.jpg (51817 bytes)
Jazz band led the parade, boat numbers in order
Parade05aStart.jpg (47855 bytes)
No. 1 boat
Parade01.jpg (60786 bytes)
Parade action
Parade02.jpg (60094 bytes)
Eagle Head
Parade03.jpg (58180 bytes)
Beer Can forestay
ParadeRatBoat01.jpg (45300 bytes)
Costumes, masks and eared caps, they were wonderful
ParadeRatBoat02.jpg (54441 bytes)
Mr. Swamp Rat himself.

The entries paraded to the race start, which was up river from the bridge, and launched their boats. The wind was downriver. They sailed to a turn location below the bridge then had to paddle back upriver to the finish line. The parade and race were really fun to watch. The boats actually sailed downwind well. None had centerboards and all had to paddle upwind.

Race01.jpg (48715 bytes)
Eagle Head nears the bridge in the lead
Race02.jpg (55197 bytes)
Eagle Head again
Race03.jpg (53794 bytes)
The next boats
Race04.jpg (53959 bytes)
Then came the masses
Race05.jpg (55168 bytes)
And more masses
Race06.jpg (52673 bytes)
Tailers
Race07.jpg (45031 bytes)
More Tailers
Race08RatBoat.jpg (45101 bytes)
Swamp Rat boat, small sail, last place, but had the most fun
1stPlace.jpg (55499 bytes)
Eagle Head finishes first
2ndPlace.jpg (47757 bytes)
'We're coming to get ya' finished 2nd
3rdPlace.jpg (52287 bytes)
016 finishes 3 rd.

 

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