Throughout the month of June we had a steady stream of boat registrations come in, not only locally, but as far away as Virginia! This year, as in years past, we had new boats register and many inquiries about our show. We had a total of 15 boats being judged.

Friday July 8^th saw many boats being launched and many going out for a short “cruise” prior to our cookout provided by the Essex Lions Club. The weather cooperated and everything went off like clock-work.

Boat show Saturday dawned bleak and with a very slight mist; we got everyone launched without any mishaps and the show opened at 9:00 a.m. to the general public. Attendance started slow as many people waited to see what the weather would do (it turned out to be cool throughout the day with a breeze). Around 11:00 a.m. we saw more people coming in and the vintage cars start to arrive up on the Law House Lawn. The flow of traffic between the two venues was excellent and people milled about looking at the cars and the boat building being done by the museum on the lawn. You could even vote for a “People’s Choice” on the cars! I think with the weather conditions that we had – attendance was good – too hot and too sunny would not have been good.

The Mystic Model Makers again outdid themselves with the models brought this year. Two new model makers were in attendance with models we had never seen before. It was always busy around the tables, with questions being asked and pictures being taken.

After enjoying an excellent cocktail hour and dinner provided by Donahue’s Madison Beach Grille, Chapter President Steve Haines thanked the museum as well as the show participants for a GREAT show and advised the dates of the show for 2017 which will be July 7-9, 2017 with the actual show on Saturday July 8^th.

Chief Judge David McFarlin thanked the judges and went over the judging criteria. Everyone was pleased to see that several of our new entries won awards and a couple won multiple awards. The listing of awards is posted on the SNEC Chapter website southernewenglandchapter-ACBS.org.

My thanks goes out to all the volunteers who helped launch, dock and coordinate the boats and trailers as well as those who helped out during the show. We will start planning our 2017 show shortly! – Lynn McFarlin, Chapter Vice President and Boat Show Chair.

Special Thanks to our chapter vice president Lynn McFarlin for putting together this article for us. Here’s to another great boat show!