The Other Show On Last Night “Flipping Ships” Premiere.
Last night at 9 Pm on Animal Planet it finally happened. The Reality Show world has found classic boats. Of course it aired right at the same time of the worlds largest media event. Really? I can hear the star singer/songwriter/Boat lover Edwin McCain just groaning…figuratively. Really? Ya work your patootie off to make a fantastic show about your passion and of all things, Bruce Jenner decides to talk about his/her “change”. That’s the sad reality of TV today I suppose. Maybe Diane Sawyer realized that the “Flipping Ships” Show would be so huge, that ABC decided to air it to compete with it? Well, they may have won a battle, but “Flipping Ships” will air through out the week, and did at 11 last night. Of course I was asleep, cause Bruce in the end was rather boring. I should have watched Flipping Ships. Sorry Edwin. Thank goodness for fellow Woody Boater Jimmy Grant son of a restorer, Jim Grant restorer of Miss America IX for sending us in the featured boats on the show the Blue Ridge Chapter of the ACBS. Take it away Jimmy.
Thanks Woody,
Several Blue Ridge chapter boats featured in the first episode of “flipping ships” on Animal Planet. Including John Heiderich’s century Coronado in the back ground,
19′ barrel back “General Jackson” being brokered by Carolina Classic Boats and cars,
Lake Hartwell winner best Chris Craft 1965 Chris Craft Super Sport “ExAustin” owned by Chris Hansen restored by Jim Grant, and home built Gad-A-Bout not sure who owns but is in the blue ridge chapter and was at the Lake Hartwell show. Can you believe they cut out the interviews! Here are a few photos from my iPhone of the show: “Gad-A-Bout”
I can hear the director saying, “touch the boat” All part of the art of reality TV
Congrats to singer/songwriter/Boat lover Edwin McCain and Animal Planet for bringing our culture to light. This show will be good for all of us and show folks that fixing up classic boats is an option instead of buying a new boat.
Is this a series that will be on weekly? Would have been in front of the tibe if I knew it was on.
Yes, they usually shoot 4 to 5 episodes to see if people like it. Its fantastic for the culture. Congrats to all that made it happen. Its not an easy process.
Saw it. Had low expectations but was pretty impressed. Edwin seems like a genuine nice guy who cares about saving boats. Seems smart enough to know when a boat should be kept 100% stock and when to let er rip. Crew seems to do quality work. Darius is as boring as his music. Geeze, give the guy an energy drink!
I’ll watch again.
I think Daruis is afraid of water, just look at his face in the header shot, seems like he’s holdin on to his Ba__s …
He did not act like he was trilled to go fast!
Saw two min. of Jenner, that was enough, then the rest of Ship, but what is with shooting a wood deck with clear coat, they need new information officer on staff. Other than that liked what I saw before I fell asleep, had to get up early and get back on “the boat” work
I’m all for it if it helps save more boats. If it really takes off it may have the effect of driving up the prices for selling boats! Not so good if it also pushes up the price for folks still trying to find & restore their favorite to have as a user. And yes, I realize that for some people restore & user can’t be the same boat!
Fun show from what I saw. There seems to be a common theme of having one character with very few teeth and limited verbal skills.
My son Danny who lives in Charleston was sitting across Shem Creek having lunch when all this filming was going on. He shot me a picture of the boat to try and figure out what type of boat it was, and try to guess what was going on with Daruis Rucker on board. A music video was our guess.
I started to watch this new show last night and BAM, it hit me what Danny was witnessing.
As they say, “Now you know the rest of the story…” (OK, who used to say that tag line???)
Paul Harvey I think it was.
we have a winner…
here is the original picture my son took back on Feb 10th
another pic
Won’t fly…..or should that be cruise? You have to have lots of cast members cussing and fighting on one of these shows…drama and such.
We as a group are not like that….sooooo
Go Boating…forget the boob tube.
John in Va.
It is hard to make a comment when one has not seen the show and barely even heard of it, but I have to ask – just what the hell is the premise of it? Are they buying and “flipping” boats for profit, as the title suggests? If so, right away one must discard the descriptor “reality show” as we all know how remunerative such undertakings are, right?
I agree that hobby exposure is good, and perhaps they can modify a few boats in a way that attracts a younger demographic to the bobby, but beyond this, just what are they doing here?
Unfortunately and based on comments above, it appears that they have suffused the show with the currently required roster of deliberately dumbed down yokels, in order to meet the requisite “redneck” saturation quota? Great, the world needs more of that.
The problem I have with this entire genre of TV is that it is so utterly contrived and shallow that it becomes literally painful to watch. The only real exception I can think of is Chasing Classic Cars with Wayne Carini – there is a humanity about that show which is melded nicely with the underlying raison d’etre – that of making a profit, and there are few if any deliberately placed hayseeds to add “character”.
I hope the actual content of this effort helps elevate it somewhat, but regardless of my affinity for the boats, I am not particularly optimistic. Flipping Ships” as a title does not evoke recreational power boating in any sense (let alone vintage craft), and I am fearful of what I may see if I actually watch it. If I was looking at the listing for for this, I would have no way of knowing it has anything to do with vintage boats.
So Matt – just what is the main, recurring theme and subject matter here? I will watch for it up here in Canada – perhaps it was on last night without me noticing.
Checking out the Animal Planet website it looks like this show isn’t really what we might think or hope it is. The following descriptions of upcoming show subjects are as follows….
A rare 1970s Yukon Delta boat, which McCain best describes as “what happens when a boat and an RV have a baby…”
A pontoon boat, which the team hopes to turn into a floating tailgate spot, converting Clemson Tiger fans into ‘sailgaters’
A rare truck camper, which McCain converts into a floating family retreat…as long as the laws of physics comply
Show repeats tonight at 10pm on Animal Planet.
I ran across the show by accident, was watching the treehouse show and Flipping Ships followed. It’s about refreshing something old, has water involved, some entertainment value and the boat they worked on was sent to a charity auction for the children’s hospital. Some of their work was a little questionable but overall it was better than watching some guy who thinks he is in the wrong body. The host said that he and Darius have raised over 7 million dollars for this charity over the last several years. I was enthused enough to set the DVR to record the series. Yes the next episode is about a pontoon boat. Seeing how successful duck call makers turned out to be iam not weighing in on how successful this show might be, but they do have their version of uncle Si.
Well John – customizing a truck camper? Is that not EXACTLY what one would expect from a show called “Flipping Ships”? What the hell are they thinking here? I am glad I can’t figure it out, because if I could, I would have to question my ability for rational thought.
My skepticism has not been mitigated by the outline supplied by John, but I will be happy if proven wrong.
Last point – why is a show like this on a network called “Animal Planet”, and not Velocity or something? I would expect shows about nature, animals and ecosystems to be found there. This also makes no sense to me, and I see no link between animals and power craft, truck campers or any other type of non-animal powered conveyance. What is programming coming to, anyway?
Paul you are exactly right…all of the genre are painful except Chasing classic cars
John in Va.
I would just hope that they don’t inflate the price of these restored boats, if any, for purposes of TV. Like Overhaulin, or that American/Canadian pickers shite that is on. IE, A nice 16 or 17′ $20,000 user, that is all of a sudden is $40,ooo on TV, and scares people away.
And I mean, scare away from the hobby, as a first time buyer.
After seeing several previews for this show while watching “my cat from hell” (yes that show is actually as good as the title presents). Based on the previews I wouldnt get your hopes up for a classic boating show. Most of the previewed boats are hodgepodge plastic boats mostly from the 80’s era that have been neglected and these guys come in and rebuild/customize into strange adaptations that “hillbilly rednecks” would like… I for one am not planning to tune in as overall it doesn’t seem to have anything of interest for me.
The last time I bought a TV, the President was doing creative things with a cigar and an intern. It sounds like I haven’t missed much.
I don’t get the appeal of scripted shows pretending to be reality, and don’t get me started on someone trying to treat their mental disorders with six figures worth of physical surgeries and hormones just to find out they are still unhappy and still have all of the mental health issues they started with.
I dont have cable. I would not watch until they do a lapstrake because they rule.
President was doing creative things with a cigar and an intern.
A great idea for a show. Especially on the Animal Planet
We could call it “Bubba meets the Kardashians”
Matt,
The second to last picture you posted is a boat I restored. 1967 20′ super sport. It won first place for its class at the Hartwell boat show this past weekend. I met Edwin and the other 2 at the Greenville boat show this winter. I talked to Edwin about boats for probably 15 to 20 minutes. They filmed it all but of course it ends up on the cutting room floor. He is a very down to earth normal guy. You would never know he’s famous when you meet him.
Hmmm… perhaps the powers that be at a planet should have named it “sea monkey marina”
Don’t know what the word “flippin” means in the USA the but up here in Canada it has somewhat negative connotations
Cobourg, “flippin” has the same negative connotations down here… Most often it implies fast, shady, work done with the least amount of effort, and expense. In hopes of turning a quick profit! Not exactly the exposure our hobby needs, but perhaps any mainstream exposure is better than nothing… If even one person sees this show and decides they want an older boat rather than a new glass one then it was good for the hobby… On the other hand, like others have stated, how many folks will see this show and it’s inevitable high auction pricing, then decide they don’t want to deal with old boats and old boat people.
Could go either way for us. I like the idea of getting classic boats and boating in general on mainstream television but I don’t think this the right angle to take for helping out hobby.
CK, just a pause to consider that for a moment……..
“flippin”. Yes, I get your drift as in; “Stubbed my flippin toe” or a close approximation. Lol.
But, just maybe it refers to the act of overturning a hull in restoration… nawwww. TV has never been that good. Maybe They couldn’t get the “shite” word past the censor board and it’s a show about buying and selling ol’ crappy Clorox bottle boats…. closer? Or, it could be a show on the costs to do a 100% restoration on a grey Ditchburn… at least that costs the same as a buying a new ship (at Muskoka prices) 🙂 However, I think the true intention was throwing a lot of it against a wall to see what sticks…”Flippin shites”.
I’ll watch it on You tube if it ever gets there.
It’s on right now!
Thankfully this show has nothing what so ever to do with the classic boating hobby. It has nothing what so ever to do with anything worthwhile!
Just to recap tonight’s “Flippin” show. New interior fabric for a boat … Tweed? Cover on mahogany deck …. clear coat? Replace a broken vintage bow Nav light with ….. a hood ornament ???? For my tastes, too much “back” story and not enough “boat” story. We’ll have to see how this plays out…..
Well that type of programming is more enjoyable and truthful than watch the “news”
Have not seen it. Will try to watch it, but it does not sound like it will hold my interest very long.
I think a series that goes into some history, construction, and restoration of classic boats would be GREAT. Unfortunately I know that if it was done in a manner that interested me there would not be enough drama to hold the general audience in todays TV culture.
Gee Matt maybe you could do a pilot that does a quality job for our hobby. Get some key restorers involved and Texx can do the research since he is so thorough. Now that is a show I would watch regularly. In the meantime I think I will have my cable unpluged.
I think we saw the one and only classic boat episode. The rest is going to be flipping found “treasures”. Regarding Chasing Classic Cars seems to more about turning car collecting into a commodity than history of the car itself. “Cobra futures are down, Gullwings are up, and COPO Camaro’s are flat”. “Next, we’ll try to sell our V12 Lincoln for big money.” I prefer “Wheeler Dealer”, at least they are more up front with their “model”.
I accidently come accross the show Friday doing some channel surfing I had never heard of it. I do marine repair for a living I wish I lived there I would love to come in and volunteer my services. I reallly liked the show and it was really cool what they did with the 58. The only think I thought that took away from the classic theme of it is by putting on a 2015 out board nothing sucks more that putting on a new engine on a classic boat, They should of went old school with an old Merc Mark 58 with a magnito painted 50s red and white with all the trim polished., The would of been so freakin sweet! Putting a new sucky engine on a classic boat is like taking a Hemi Cuda jerking out the Hemi and putting in a chevy six cylinder in it. I do love the show though I will watch it again if I get a chance . I wish I had people like this to go hang out with here out in the sticks with A-holes sucks. Gotta move . I give the show a 9 will watch it again. I love the old guy he is a smart a@@ and cracks me up! My kind of people!