The Reedville Boat Show.. Or, The Cobblers Boat Show!
I got an email from fellow Woody Boater Clif Ames yesterday asking me to submit my paper work for the local show here in Reedville VA our home and world headquarters to the Woody Boater fortune.. Cough cough, rim shot, crickets….. Anyway. I thought, egh, that show is in a month.. I thought, dang why is Clif so uptight about my dumb paper work? So I checked the date… AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It’s next week.. What the hell happened to my summer? And here I am, Mr Boat Show, clocking 70,000 miles on the Woodyboater mobile in two years going to shows. Heck there is stuff going on in Italy, NY, Idaho, everyplace, and yet in my own back yard, literally, I have been negligent of promoting our own show, or even worse, helping out. Clif is a machine and gets it done with some amazing volunteers from the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum. This year it looks like we will have close to 40 classic boats that take over the small town of Reedville.
Reedville is a Main street filled with stunning homes from the 1800’s-1940’s and in everyone’s back yard is a classic boat. So its a fun tour of homes and boats. basically the entire town shuts down for the day. In between all that we all go out and have fun on the water and eat.. Reedville is about 2 1/2 hrs from DC, and 1 1/2 hours from Richmond. If you want to bring a boat, the water is brackish. There will be some very cool cruisers, mixed in with some true Chesapeake work boats, and some tasty classic woody boats. Clifs new 17 Sportsman, Suzy, the whaler, Yannon and more will all be there as well.

The worlds most original vintage Boston Whaler will be there. Here she is pictured up in Algonac one day after being brought out in the light.
Below is the official press release of the show with contact info.
Reedville to Host 9th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Show
The Reedville Fishermen’s Museum and the Tidewater Chapter of Antique and Classic Boat Society will host the ninth annual Reedville Antique and Classic Boat Show on Saturday, September 8th from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Over 25 boats will be on display on land at the museum campus and in the water at private piers up and down Reedville’s historic Main Street.
Clif Ames, a Reedville Fishermen’s Museum volunteer, has been coordinating the event since its inception ten years ago. Ames is enthusiastic about the show and what it means for the museum and the community. “Our show is special, he said, much more personal, thanks to the many Main Street residents who volunteer to host the visiting boats at their piers.”
“Our visitors really seem to enjoy the festival atmosphere – the village is buzzing all day,” added Ames. “In addition to the boats on display, there’s also a nautical flea market, lots of good food and drink, and a boat parade. Our visitors can stroll down Main Street and walk out to the piers to view these great classic boats from leading boat builders including Chris Craft, Matthews, Century, Consolidated and Whirlwind. Plus, many of the boat owners will be on hand to welcome visitors aboard to proudly show off the restoration work that they’ve done.”
TOGA, the Tidewater Oyster Gardening Association, will be presenting an Oyster Gardening Workshop in the morning from 9-11 a.m.
Kayaks and other small craft are welcome to launch from the museum floating dock to view the boats from the creek. Smith Point Sea Rescue will operate a free water taxi at the Reedville Marine Railway from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm to view the waterfront homes and show boats.
The featured boats will parade past the reviewing stand at the Crazy Crab Restaurant at 3:00.
“We expect to have a great turnout for the show, with boats from near and far registered for the event.” Ames concludes, “nowadays, master craftsmen have been replaced by computerized tooling and assembly lines. But no matter how modern the lines on boats have become, nothing can replicate the beauty and craftsmanship of the antiques and classics.”
For more information contact the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum at 804-453-6529 or visit them at www.rfmuseum.org.
The 9th Annual Antique and Classic Boat Show is Saturday September 8th in Reedville from 9am to 4pm. Boats may be viewed between 9 am and approximately 2:30 pm when they start lining up for the boat parade at 3. There is a $5 pier pass charge which also covers admission to the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum. Children (12 and under) attending with an adult are admitted free. Wristband passes may be purchased at the information tents located at the museum and along Main Street.
Hmmm, the cobbler’s children have no shoes? Boat’s? Dependent on my hubby’s schedule, and shoes, We’ll try to make it. We enjoyed seeing the well kept and unusual cruisers last time.
Matt sounds like a fantastic event — Some time ago you and Texx were talking about organizing the first “official” woody boater festival and were actively soliciting nominations for a suitable location… don’t recall seeing Reedville being mentioned as a potential nominee but after reading today’s post and your previous posts about the ol’e home port (such as the one about the spring blessing of the boats) I think that Reedville may well be the most appropriate place to host the first WB shindig
Good call, cK! And we can all stay with Matt at HQ! Looks like a great show….
Next year we are in the works on several events. One on Torch Lake that will be all Woody Boaters, not any specific ACBS chapter. Torch Lake area was named by National Geographic as the 3rd most beutiful lake in the world! And the evnt would all go to a good cause. We will be talking about that soon.. Also we are looking at an event in Canada.
You mean the Torch Lake that is in the far north of the You Pee? If so, adding an additional event in Canada would be redundant. 🙂
My vote for a Canadian location East of the Rockies would be somewhere along the Rideau canal and chain of lakes.
Will there be interpreters for those of us who don’t speak Canadian?
It depends if they are speaking East Canadian or West Canadian.
Any show can grow from small to large overnight, simply by offering free beer.
Other than the cost, liability, property damage, and reduction in quality and decorum of spectators, I can’t understand why this isn’t common practice.
I,m in on the free beer thing.
Just think if Matt & Texx (Woody Boater) offered FREE gas!
That would bring out the home boys.
It doesn’t have to be free, I would happily pay the amount shown on the top of Matt’s new pump.
Free Gas…
How about serving up some complimentary Pure Michigan Koegels Polish / Kielbasa breakfast hotdogs for all the show participants?
or some Yale Bologna