The Indianapolis Antique & Classic Boat Society held its 22nd Antique & Classic Boat Show at the White River Yacht Club on Saturday, June 28th, 2008. More than thirty beautiful boats were brought to the show from near and far and placed on display for the public to see and appreciate.

I was fortunate to have had my friend Mike Boone volunteer to serve as my tour guide for the show. You may know him as a well-known salesperson with Lockhart Cadillac, but I also know him as a wooden boat connoisseur and a walking encyclopedia about wooden boat technology and history. Walking among all of those antique and classic boats with Mike and listening to his stories about the history of each boat was a real treat. I was the avid owner of a 1956 Chris Craft Continental boat for over 35 years. but my knowledge of wooden boats pales by comparison to his.

Mike showed me his pristine, award winning 1938 Chris Craft named "The Keg" and a 1955 Sea Bird boat made in Port Carling, Canada that he had purchased from a family in Canada after pestering them for 9 years to buy the boat. The Canadian boat has a breath-taking finish that looks like a grand piano, a mid-engine, and three rows of seats. It looks very much like it did in the showroom back in 1955. Mike doesn't just pamper these mahogany boats, he uses them and enjoys their power and their smooth rides in the water.

One of the oldest boats in the show was a beautifully preserved wooden 1940's Century "Mighty Mite" fishing boat that is owned by Fritz Kreutzinger of Fishers. It was filled with fishing memorabilia from that era. If you can stand by that nautical heirloom from the past and not get a nostalgic lump in your throat, there may be something seriously wrong with you.

Equally interesting was Jay Walls' display of antique and fully restored outboard motors, such as the antique 1911 Evinrude motor shown in the photo. Compared to today's inboard-outboard and V-drives, they may be very crude but they had many ingenious features for their time and most of them are capable of running strong today.

A number of early fiberglass boats were also on display; that type of boat construction having followed the wooden boat era.

One owner remarked that the three primary ingredients of a wooden boat are mahogany, precision workmanship, and love. It was clear at the boat show that love for those boats is very powerful, long lasting and highly contagious. He said that most wooden boat owners recognize that they are only the temporary stewards of the wooden boats that they own and that it is their responsibility to maintain their boats in pristine condition and then pass them down to the next generation of devoted owners and caretakers. When you talk to the present generation of owners and their children and grandchildren, you realize that these beautiful wooden boats will be around to be enjoyed by many generations to come.

I just hope that the Antique & Classic Boat Society elects to showcase these boats in Indianapolis again next year. I can assure them that I will be there if they do and I strongly recommend that you join me.