Woody Boater Announces New Prerestoric Award!
From Woody Boater Headquarters – We are proud to announce we will be awarding a special “Best Prerestoic Boat” at shows we attend or by special request. Each glorious trophy them selves will be Prerestoric being harvested from old trophies. Seemed fitting. No two will be alike, unless we find two, nor perfect, just like your charming death trap! So now even you, with your great unvarnished collection of mahogany can win an award at any boat show you go to. But, Oh, it does come with some judging criteria. What? You think we just hand this crap out? You do have to kinda earn it, or actually, not earn it. The less you do to your “Future” project the better. The winner will be plastered all over Woody Boater like you won Best Of Show of course.
The Judging Rules.
1. It must float…for the show.
2. It must run. No really run, like we will want to go out on it.
3. It can have a new bottom and engine. Doesn’t have to, but can.
4. It must be right at that stage that you want to use it for juuuust a little longer until you have to restore it.
5. There has to be a good story behind it. Something special.
6. It can not be a bad recent restoration that you did yourself, unless you tried to make it look like it never was restored. OK that’s a brain loop.
7. It has to be at the show and you must have fun with it. Its all attitude, Dude or Dudette!
That’s it. Really its more about dragging a barn find to a show and plopping it in the water and praying. This very special limited award is designed to encourage folks to bring out the fun stuff and be part of the show. To encourage different looks and attitudes towards our Woody boats.
This is about fun, and what Woody Boater is all about. Right now we are planning on handing out the first one at Lake Dora. Just think, you have all winter to do nothing to your boat. All you have to do is pray that it doesn’t fall apart on the way there on that crap trailer you got to match it. Feel free to add to the judging rules today in the comment section.
WOW! And you thought my pictures upset some of the more formal ACBS crowd.
Rule: You need to provide enough buckets so that everyone you take for a ride can help keep her afloat.
I love it. Great looking trophy by the way.
I’m not sure I want to be in the “Prerestoric” club but I may have a trophy to donate.
Matt
Great idea; Wrong name!! sorry I was asleep at this switch last week
It should be “Pre-Preserved” NOT Pre-restoric;
“Restored” means massive replanking – even up to the point of being nearly a replica – appropriate only for the least seaworthy of the gray boats. And most “true bel;ievers” resist the idea of rebuilding with mostly new wood just to look a little better at a show.
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“Preserved” means “Save as much of the original as you safely can while preserving the original appearance (except maybe for the varnish!)
So, in the interest of valuing the continues originality of these unique old boats, please rename your excellent award
“Pre-Preserved”
I think it is a great idea, but hope it doesn’t attract a bunch of boats with faux “patina” or other contrived efforts to concoct a particularly bedraggled appearance. One can see in the car hobby that some people conjure up fake “distress’ on various finishes, and may do so either openly or in a manner meant to deceive.
With “barn-finds” and “patina” becoming a cliché to an extent and “survivor” class becoming very popular, the infliction of intentional distress or simply avoiding normal maintenance and cleaning to create this “look” is also becoming common.
I am with Gene – I find the replacement of otherwise usable wood or original components in the pursuit of perfection or awards to be utterly repellant. However, I am certainly in favor of fresh varnish, operable gauges and usable seating surfaces when the originals are no longer functional and can’t be repaired.
One question – why not require the original engine, or at least one of a type similar to original? That is just as much part of the boat as anything else and in many ways just completes the image suggested by the otherwise original appearance of the specimen. Without an original type engine, the visual appearance of the boat writes a check the reality can’t cash. That is a huge letdown to those of us who actually like original power. If you can tolerate having little stain or varnish left on the wood, springs poking up through the seats and other issues, surely the original engine cannot be too much to bear?
Aside than these two points, I love the idea and hope you encourage people to bring some stuff out of the weeds and have fun with it. The belief that people hold, that shows ( judged or non-judged) are just for boats in great shape is to me a problem and I hope this helps encourage folks to bring their well-worn family user boats, garage or barn finds or what-have-you out to the events.
I agree with Paul … sort of. If the ACBS is going to judge, then absolute authenticity is a must. If it’s WoodyBoater handing out awards for bringing a fun boat to the show, then why not let the Hollywood specials in too?
After all, it’s only a paint job, and a good set painter can age a new boat to look more legit than the real deal.
Fake or not, I can foresee the peoples choice awards going to these boats frequently.
Bravo! Nice speech , A little verbose but nice all the same, and btw I agree, that is, with the proposed original engine rule , that is assuming it runs and floats, after all we don’t want anymore purgatory cove moments do we.
The Dart on the masthead today needs to dirty up the bow line….it’s too white! What’s the point deductions for “new lines”?
Although what Gene tells us is true, it doesn’t fit the play on words here on Woody Boater. Pre-Restoric, vs Pre-Preservic? I understand and feel that any boat that can be “Preserved” should be “Preserved”, and not “Restored” in accordance with ACBS guidelines.
But, for the Woody Boater purpose here, why spoil the fun? Heck, a boat that is a good candidate for preserving isn’t going to be restored because it may have won a fun Woody Boater trophy called “Best Prerestoric Boat”.
SK-22-169: DENBY will be stiff competition…a boathouse-fresh survivor!
Coming soon to a show near…oh, just get to Green Lake, WI and we’ll go for a spin.
I am going to show up at Green Lake one day and hold you to that promise.
I’M not worried…look at the acres of crispy varnish here!
In this class, the LESS you spit & polish, the better your chances of taking home a (pitted and cobbled-up) trophy!
I vote Scott’s Dart pre-restoric for life or however long that bilge pump holds out!
The term Pre-Restoric is a different term and a correct description of a non word. The word “Prerestoric” as one word is what we are using. believe it or not it was intentional. For example “Prehistoric” is a word, Pre-Historic is a descriptor. We thought long and hard about this, had meetings and disgust it at great length, tabled the discussion.. HAHAHAHA.
WOW!! Wooden boats and a Grammer lesson all on the same site. I’m really saving time today. Ha, Ha, Ha.
I think some heads just exploded over at Webster’s dictionary
Maybe also need to specify an age range? 50 years or older maybe? Just sayin, a prerestoric 1968 Correct Craft is a lot less impressive of a find than a prerestoric 1930 Chris Craft.
Everyone is reading way to much into this—great idea—there won’t be that many candidates to choose from. This year at Tavares, along with Tahoe and the Keels and Wheels show, we are featuring Chris Craft Racing Runabouts from 1936 to 1954. Maybe we can find a racer that fits this category. We will certainly look forward to a winner at our show. Happy Boating to all—Terry
GASP! Over thinking anything? Really? HAHAHHAHA! Great comment Terry! I look forward to Florida already
I suppose I should clarify my comment slightly. If a boat is a true preristoric survivor, then I believe it should have its’ original engine or a similar type, installed a long time ago. If it is a boat specifically prepared to look this way – distressed, worn out and intentionally haggard but still going, then I guess it doesn’t matter what power it has. But, from the perspective of authenticity a real survivor should have the old/original power. It is not really a survivor if the engine is gone and a new one is in place, is it?
It becomes a bit of a farce for a guy to drag a worn out relic from somewhere and plunk in a new engine, but leave the other stuff alone and untended – to me that is pointless. The point here, as I understand it, is true survivors that have had no real restoration done and proudly show it. In my opinion, a new engine misses the point entirely. The new bottom I get.
I think Terry is right – there are very, very few of these true originals left and I think it will be hard to get many of them to shows, only because they are so scarce. Still, I hope we can get more real survivors out to the shows, in their original glory.
I’m on my way to Africa to find a really old mahogany tree and get that plank put back in. In the meantime put my original name on that genuine original unrestored not preserved prerestoric award.
BTW, the trailer is for sale. Once I get her in the water, I won’t need no stinkin’ trailer again.
Matt, is it acceptable to clean the windshield? or is there also a biggest balls award for driving blind? Look at header pic…or was that a little photoshop magic?
First, I don’t really get the whole “rat rod” flat black thing… But, If I did pull a prerestoric out of the weeds somewhere it would have no code to answer to. It would be just the way I found it with mis-matched parts, duct tape, and whatever McGuiver was done to it over the years to keep it a working boat. Rod holders, foam grip steering wheel, and yes a non-factory motor if that’s the way it was … because that is the story of that boat. Once you start looking at correct screw heads we are back to the same thing we already have… just crappier. BTW, I think you’d need a tetanus shot just to sit in some of the prerestoric boats I’ve seen and there is a lot of prerestoric plastic out there 🙂
Wow. Our Zoomer finally sports a chance at winning an award. Cannot wait until next August…..
Float for how long? Any limits on size or numbers of bilge pumps?
never runs for more than 40 mins, leaks badly, nothing has ever been fixed properly, i only lover her because she has not killed me YET,,Ali not wood sorry, could I still enter?? (if she and me woke up in the US tomrow)