17th Annual La Conner Classic Boat and Car Show

[Bflaherty]

That's right! The La Conner Classic is back again and this year they are really trying to make it better for those of us with boats on trailers.

I received this update from Heather Carter at the La Conner Chamber of Commerce:

"This year the “Boats on Trailer” (BOT) will be limited to the display of your classic fiberglass or wood boats (make before 1979)
> Please no “For Sale” signage
> All BOT must pre-register – no day of applicants will be accepted
> Due to space, you will need to park your BOT in the assigned lot and then find additional parking off site for your vehicle.
> You do have the opportunity to have your boat launched and moored on the F dock during show hours for no additional fee.
Arrangement for this must be made by Monday, July 24th.

This year’s show is Saturday August 5th"

I have attached the registration form as well as the official flyer!! Mark your calendars! "Tupperware" and I will hopefully be back to defend our people's choice award honors and I am trying to get some of the ACBS folks to bring their trailer boats out to the show.

[bruceb]

Hey,Brian, great info and thanks for attaching the form and poster. That's an interesting development assigning specific spaces as in years past it's been first come on the parking of boats. We definitely benefitted when Clint was the trailer boat co-ordinator as the spaces were organized by boat type usually and he knew where owners wanted to cluster their boats. Hopefully the organizer this year will adopt some reasoning for how the boats will "fit in" and parking won't be a traffic jam. Last year the person doing the registration and parking direction was quite clueless on the logistics of detaching trailers from trucks. Seemed to think it was more important to fill out forms than get vehicles unloaded and out of the way. Should go smoother with pre-registration.
Rumor has it Clint may be getting two cents in on the display of BOTs this year.
Vintage shot from 2002 ?lcbs6.jpg

[Kelly]

Great photo Bruce, I really dig the line up pics!

If all goes as planned, I'll be able to register just in time. If the plan is temporarily set back, then it will be next year.

[bruceb]

Great if you can make the show, Kelly. As we'd discussed ( maybe even last year ?)
It's great to see boat projects in process - perfect "trailer queens" are few, and we'd always prided on the concept that the boats were "used on the water"-regularly !
A few years ago I showed the boat there with an incomplete transom, no engine, to show work in progress. Learned some details from John Nelson, progress !

[bruceb]

One thing I learned from attending car and ACBS shows is the presentation and history boards for the vehicles on display. Generally showing a before image or
two of the item and showing the brochure of your year of boat gives viewers a neat perspective. Progress shots of a restoration. Personalizing your ownership of the item helps as well. Places/lakes you've taken it, etc. Add graphics from the era. Lots of ways of having fun with presentation...,,,

[Kelly]

I'll be there, because if I don't make it then I'll have wasted a week's vacation.

[Bflaherty]

The show was another success! I wouldn't say it was great, but it went smoothly. We only had a small handful of boats show this year. Which included John and his Uniflite along with our Chris Craft... We were the only two NWCBC members to show this year, SPECIAL NOTICE must be paid to Kelly Jacobs who registered for the show, took a week off of work to prep a boat no one knew he had then the day show the trailer axle broke on the highway leaving him no way to get the boat to La Conner! Other boats included two ACBS members, Alan Thomle with his 1929 Yandt Brother's gentlemen's racer "Greyhound" and Dick Kasperson with his 1941 Chris Craft 22' deluxe utility! This marked the first return to La Conner for these two boats in over 8 years!! There was a Skagit 17 express from Orcas Island presented by McElroy Boatworks. Along with a little High Laker (never saw the owner).

Not a great showing, but the volunteers were helpful and open to letting us park the boats how we felt best for display. The spectators were friendly and really seemed to enjoy the boats that were there.

People's choice honors went to "GREYHOUND" for wood boat on trailer, and "TUPPERWARE" defended her crown for fiberglass on trailer.

Hopefully we can get a few more NWCBC folks to come out and support this worthy show, the organizers really want to see the boat display back up to what it was back in '02-'10 when the lot was FULL!

I only got a couple pictures as I was there with our 4 year old and was more focused on keeping him safe and happy rather than snapping photos.

[Kelly]

Thanks for the mention Brian. Yeah, I was disappointed to say the least. To say I didn't look over the entire trailer and do my due diligence would be false as I put new bearings, seals and polished the spindles to ensure no problems would occur. There was a hairline crack at the 6 o'clock position of the tube running from spindle to spindle and I just didn't see it. The horrible freeway conditions through Pierce county was the ultimate demise for the metal fatigue. It could have been much much worse. Thankfully I have AAA with boat/rv...