2013 Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival Summary

The 2013 Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival is now history and for the most part, we have all returned home from the show (in some cases to much cooler climates), with some great memories of another successful event in Tavares, Florida thanks to the hard work from the organizers and volunteers at the Sunnyland ACBS Chapter.

As many of you may have noticed by the daily updates and subsequent reports of the Sunnyland show here on Woody Boater, we had a fabulous time covering the events. Here’s some interesting stats. We know that they average around 7,000-9,000 visitors a year, had 79 vendors, with 300-500 participants from approximately 25-30 states, Canada and even Europe.

Today we are handing the computer over to our friend Terry Fiest – Chairman of the Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival who sent us a comprehensive summary of this years show along with a list of award winners as presented by the various boat show sponsors and Sunnyland Chapter. Although we didn’t have many specific photos for Terry’s summary today, we decided to sprinkle some of our photos from the show in with Terry’s comments for some visual effect – we hope you like them and don’t forget you can click on the photos for enlargements.

2013 SUNNYLAND ANTIQUE BOAT FESTIVAL
AT WOOTEN PARK ON LAKE DORA IN THE CITY OF TAVARES
by Terry Fiest – Boat Show Chairman

The 26th Annual Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival and our 6th event at Tavares was a great show but we were hampered by the weather through-out the week end. For some reason Florida has had some unusual colder weather in March and we felt the blunt of it on Sunday when we pulled all the water boats in an attempt to not damage the 119 boats in the water from high winds.

In preparation for the show, the City of Tavares insured that Wooton Park was in perfect shape for our annual event and each year there are more features to enhance the show. This year participants were afforded an opportunity to stay in the beautiful new Lakeview Inn located across from the ramp. In addition, the Barbeque restaurant has been converted to a Beach restaurant complete with a real sand floor.

This year we had a vintage Rail Road Steam Engine pulling vintage passenger cars from the train station at the show site. Show participants had an opportunity to take a two hour ride on the train that has been featured in 13 different movies. The Central Florida Woody Car Club was co-located on the lawn at ALS’s Restaurant and on Saturday all the vintage railroad “Speeders” passed in front of the show on the recently re-built tracks.

When you combine the old boats, woody cars and the steam engine, it was a glimpse into the past when life was not quite as hectic and there were multiple modes of travel. When you add it all up, we had over 100 vintage boats in the water, 50 on land display, 55 boats for sale, 10 Woody Cars, 9 boats from the Florida Glaspar Club, 70 Flea Market vendors and several displays of vintage out board motors.

We had attendance from 27 different states and several boats and guests from Canada. The farthest boat came from western Canada and top honors went to “McKenzie” a 1929 Hackercraft owned by Mark Andreae from Ohio.

There is no other show in the country that features everything that the Sunnyland Show offers.

This year our Marquee Class was Lyman Boats and we had several beautiful boats from all over the East Coast. Michael Lloyd from the Lyman Organization did a presentation on the history of the boats and at conclusion of the dinner banquet we raffled the Lyman painting to a lucky Lyman owner.

The Sunnyland Volunteers make this event very special and our Tractor Valet Parking service affords every participant the maximum time on the water. When you arrive at our show, you know that you are well cared for and you don’t have to worry about where to park your trailer.

All the Sunnyland volunteers stepped up for the challenge and all four days were very smooth and everyone had a wonderful time. On Thursday evening several Corporate Sponsors hosted a wine and cheese party at the new Hoity Toity Antique store in Tavares.

On Friday, 33 boats departed the docks at Wooten Park and headed thru the historic Dora canal enroute to the picnic at Hickory point. A barbeque lunch was served and all attendees were entertained by a local Blue Grass Band. After the picnic, all the boats made their way back thru the canal to the docks. Friday evening we had the traditional Captains Party on site at the show followed by a huge auction to raise money for the youth program.

On Saturday at 930am, the blast from the cannon signaled the start of the show and Flotilla 43 from the Lake County Coast Auxiliary presented the Nations Colors. Sherry Barrens sang the National Anthem to a large patriotic crowd.

Our youth program continues to grow and this year we had three different launching events for the kids. Several young boating enthusiasts were schooled in the art of Judging and they all choose a boat named “Retrospective”, a 2005 22 foot H craft owned by H Smith from Georgia. This was a fun event for all of those who participated.

Saturday night we had an outstanding dinner catered by Carreras Restaurant and everyone agreed this was the best dinner they have ever had at a boat show. In fact, the restaurant staff was given a “Standing Ovation “for the meal and the service.

Sunday morning we made a decision based on the weather forecast to pull the water boats starting at 9am and this proved to be a vital move. The winds steadily increased and the water was pounding the docks and it was very difficult to retrieve all the boats, but all the Sunnyland Volunteers came together and we got all the boats back on trailers without an incident. We had the awards ceremony in the middle of the storm and we had to cancel Church Services because of the high winds.

“The Sunnyland Ships Store” was in full production for three days and did an outstanding job of selling a large inventory of nautical clothing. All the show T-shirts were sold and posters painted and designed by Karen Wood-Thomas were big sellers. Sunday’s ticket sales were cancelled because of the storm and by 3pm the park was cleared and everyone headed home.

There are over 200 volunteers working on 29 different committees that make it happen. We welcome new people and we always need help. We will start the preparation for the 2014 show in October and if you want to be part of something special please join us. When you combine our north and southbound river cruises into our event, its two weeks of fantastic Antique Boating.

Congratulations to all of you who un–selfishly gave so much, I am proud to be the Chairman of this spectacular event and I sincerely thank all of you for your untiring support. The date for the show next year is, March 27-28-29-30, 2014

Terry Fiest
Chairman Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival
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Thanks Terry for the report and THANK YOU for everything you do to make this such a great event.
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Here is a list of all the 2013 Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival Awards which are chosen by the various event sponsors as well as the ACBS / Sunnyland ACBS Chapter.

2013 SUNNYLAND ANTIQUE BOAT FESTIVAL AWARDS

1. ANTIQUE BOAT CENTER – GOLD SPONSOR
1969 22′ Lyman “Lyman Tyme”
Dennis Mykols – Spring Lake, MI

2. KATZ’S MARINA – GOLD SPONSOR
1929 29′ Hacker Boat Co “McKenzie”
Mark Andreae – Cincinnatti, OH

3. HAGERTY INSURANCE – GOLD SPONSOR
1939 19′ Gar Wood “Miss Lisa”
Matt Byrne – Aurora, IL

4. GAR WOOD CUSTOM BOATS – SILVER SPONSOR
1938 25′ Gar Wood “Duet”
Robert Gilson – Middleton, WI

5. ANTIQUE BOAT AMERICA – SILVER SPONSOR
1931 20′ Chris-Craft “Pappy”
Ebby Dupont – St. Michaels, MD 21663

6. SEA TOW – SILVER SPONSOR
1929 28′ Sea Lyon “Sea Lion”
Don Kehr

7. KOCIAN INSTRUMENTS – BRONZE SPONSOR
1957 27′ Chris-Craft “Witness”
Caroline Clark – Boca Grande, FL

8. RAYCO MANUFACTURING – BRONZE SPONSOR
1963 18′ Crestliner “Estrellita”
Wes Van Dine – Tavares, FL

9. ARISTO CRAFT – BRONZE SPONSOR
2011 14′ Aristocraft
David Godsell – Atlanta, GA

10. GRAVES PLATING – BRONZE SPONSOR
1932 20′ Hackercraft “Julie Ann”
Ed Fairchild – Holland, MI

11. FISHERMAN’S COVE – BRONZE SPONSOR
1942 18′ Chris-Craft “Blue Moon II”
Jim Frechette, Austin, TX

12. CAROLINA CLASSICS – BRONZE SPONSOR
2005 22′ H-Craft “Retrospective”
H. Smith – Beaufort, GA

13. ALAN WEINSTEIN / SIERRA BOAT CO. – BRONZE SPONSOR
1997 24′ Boesch
Kjell Kristiansen – Louisville, KY

14. MAINE CLASSICS – BRONZE SPONSOR
1996 25′ Gar Wood Custom Boats “Serendipity”
Jack Magri – Tavares, FL

15. CHRIS-CRAFT ANTIQUE BOAT CLUB – BRONZE SPONSOR
1956 26′ Chris-Craft “Jac-N-Lynn”
Jack Bingham – Umatilla, FL

16. DART BOATS – BRONZE SPONSOR
1934 18′ Chris-Craft “Waterwings”
Tim Dahlen – W. Hampton, NY

17. WOODEN BOAT HOUSE – BRONZE SPONSOR
1966 19′ Century “Gold Rush”
Dale Sirois – Marrero, LO 70072

18. WOODY BOATER – BRONZE SPONSOR
1962 22′ Chris-Craft “Madam Mayflower”
Judy Alden – Saint Augustine, FL

19. SPONSOR RESTORED BOAT
1955 21′ Chris-Craft “Ventuno”
Seth Katz – Glasser, NJ

20. TRAVELLED THE FARTHEST WITH BOAT
1965 24′ Chris-Craft “Kabot’s Habit”
Karen Harrison – Calgary, Alberta, Canada

21. YOUTH ACTIVITY AWARD
2005 22′ H-Craft “Retrospective”
H. Smith – Beaufort, GA

22. LYMAN BOAT – BEST OUTBOARD
1957 15′ Lyman “Past Carin'”
Rolland Clark – Greenville, OH

23. LYMAN BOAT – BEST INBOARD
1966 26′ Lyman
Jack Beatley – Columbus, OH

24. LYMAN BOAT – MOST ORIGINAL
1948 13′ Lyman “Muffet”
George Emmanuel III – Gainesville, FL

25. LYMAN BOAT – COMMODORES AWARD
1959 23′ Lyman “Adele”
Christopher Stang – Charleston, SC

26. FLORIDA GLASSPAR CLUB – ORIGINAL
1966 17’5″ Glasspar
David Dyson – Clermont, FL

27. FLORIDA GLASSPAR CLUB – PRESERVED
1958 13′ Glasspar
Donald Hines – Crawfordville, FL

28. ANTIQUE OUTBOAT MOTOR CLUB
1958 Mercury 75H
Frank Erion

29. BEST OUTBOARD MOTOR DISPLAY
12hp & 25hp Wizards
Joe Fisher Jr & Harry Brown

30. MOST OUTSTANDING CONTEMPORARY
2011 27′ Gar Wood Custom Boats “Real Class Iii”
Calvin Carter – Tampa, FL

31. OUTSTANDING CANADIAN BOAT
1960 16′ Shepherd Boat Company “Family Heirloom”
Robert Antes – Rotonda West, FL

32. ONE-OF-A-KIND
2013 25′ Aristo Craft
Bill Turner – Alpharetta, GA

33. ACBS MOST ORIGINAL
1957 14′ Larson “Lollipop Ii”
Roger Moberg – White Bear Lake, MN

34. OUTSTANDING RACE BOAT
1931 19′ Chris-Craft “M-2 Sleeper”
William Burgess – Orlando, FL

35. CLASSIC RACE BOAT ASSOCIATION AWARD
2009 16′ Gillam “Last Blast”
Skip Gillam – Hialeah, FL

36. OUTSTANDING JERSEY SKIFF
1997 16′ Harris “Breaking Water”
Roger Harris – Hollywood, FL

37. OUTSTANDING CENTURY
1939 18′ Century “Relic”
Paul Mason – Pulaski, WI

A big thanks to all the sponsors who came out to support this years Sunnyland event, we appreciate everything you do for our hobby. We encourage everyone to support the folks and businesses who support this event and our hobby.

Matt & Texx
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