20th Annual Keels & Wheels Concours d’Elegance 2015 – Record Attendance At The Lakewood Yacht Club!
Classic Cruiser 50′ & Below – Best of Class Owner: Patsy Snell, Port Arthur, TX – 1965 Chris-Craft 46′ Constellation “Finale” – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club.
IT’S HERE, IT’S HERE! – We now have an official report in from the popular 2015 Keels & Wheels event held a few weeks ago in Texas. Below is a wonderful press release with all the details prepared by The Padgett Group.
20th Annual Keels & Wheels Concours d’Elegance 2015
Photos courtesy of Lakewood Yacht Club
Seabrook, Texas – Close to 14,000 guests visited the Lakewood Yacht Club May 2 through May 3 for the 20th Annual Keels and Wheels Concours d’Elegance. Dennis Gage, host of Velocity’s “My Classic Car”, served as the 2015 Grand Marshal. “My Classic Car” filmed an episode throughout the weekend for its upcoming season. Keith Martin, Publisher of Sports Car Market Magazine and star of the TV program, “What’s My Car Worth”, served as the Master of Ceremonies for the 7th consecutive year.
Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club
Together Gage and Martin welcomed visitors to experience the beauty and rarity of 300 hand-selected classic automobiles and vintage wooden boats. In honor of the 20th anniversary, Keels & Wheels invited the “Best of the Best” show winners from years past to display their classics and included the marques of Packard and Mustang for automobiles and Gar Wood and HackerCraft for boat classics. The diversity of entries allowed guests to view iconic cars and boats such as the Batmobile, Clark Gable’s 1952 Jaguar XK 120, the USS Arizona Battleship Replica and Margaret Dunning’s 1930 Packard Convertible Roadster.
The crowded docks featuring a full range of antique & classic boats – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club
The opening of Keels and Wheels on Saturday, May 2, attracted a record-breaking number of guests. Competitors from throughout the United States brought their cherished classic automobiles and wooden boats to the picturesque bay for judging in 79 classes. The concours boater award ceremony took place Saturday afternoon.
Tom Wolfe’s gorgeous 1959 Century 21′ Coronado “Selah” – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club
Terry Fiest served as the 2015 Chief Boat Judge alongside co-founder Paul Merryman and several distinguished judges, to award Best in Show for the small boat category to Doug Morin of Bay City, MI for his beautiful 1930 30′ HackerCraft. Judges also prized a spectacular 1941 Elco owned by Jim and Nelda Blair, of The Woodlands, TX for Best in Show in the big boat category.
The coveted Best of the Best Award for Small Boat was given to Clay & Patty Thompson of Altus, Oklahoma for their 1930 26′ Chris-Craft Triple, “3 Wishes”.
Antique Runabout Silver Owner: Clay & Patty Thompson, Altus, OK. – 1930 Chris-Craft 26′ Triple Cockpit Upswept “3 Wishes” – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club.
A nice shot of the interior / forward cockpit of “3 Wishes” – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club
The Best of the Best for Large Boat was given to Lee Anderson of Naples, Florida for “Tolka”, a 1928 Limosine Launch.
Antique Cruiser 40′ & Below – Best of Class Owner: Lee Anderson, Naples, FL – 1928 Graham Bell Laboratories Limosine Launch “TOLKA” – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club
The amazing cockpit of “TOLKA” – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club
The Concours reopened to the public for its second day of fun-filled activities on Sunday, May 3. Visitors experienced tours of a Coast Guard Cutter, a tiki bar by the water and autograph sessions with Dennis Gage. Children also had a chance to participate hands on in the “Kids Build a Boat” event in which the finished boat with oars was given to one of the participating builders through a raffle drawing.
A very impressive 1964 Helton Runabout “Memories Class of 64” owned by Raymond Balsam – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club.
The car award ceremony also took place mid-afternoon where Concours Chairman, Bob Fuller and Keith Martin, Master of Ceremonies, awarded Frank Rubino of Pinecrest, FL with the Best of Show – European award for his 1950 Aston Martin DB2. Joseph A. Scott won the Best of Show – American award for his 1930 Cadillac 452 Series.
The Best of the Best European Automobile was awarded to Peter Mullin, of Oxnard, California for his 1939 Bugatti Aravis. Richard and Irina Mitchell of Montgomery, Texas were awarded the Best of the Best American Automobile for their 1930 Stutz Lancefield. The full winner’s list is available at www.keels-wheels.com.
Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club
This event is made possible with the support from sponsors Lincoln Motor Company, City of Seabrook, Old Iron Works, BayWay Auto Group, Bentley Houston, City of Nassau Bay, Raymond James & Associates, the Albemarle Foundation, DriverSource, Reliable Carriers, Inc., Fishbone Energy Services / Safety Solutions, The Yacht Sales Company, Evergreen Industrial Services and numerous other sponsors.
All proceeds from the 2015 event benefitted the Boys and Girls Harbor, whose mission is to provide a home and safe environment for abandoned and abused children and healthy, comprehensive care for children and families in crisis. For more information please visit www.keels-wheels.com or follow us on Facebook.
Media Contact:
Kim Padgett
The Padgett Group
Antique Cruiser 40′ & Above – Best of Class Owner: Jim and Nelda Blair, The Woodlands, TX – 1941 ELCO “Serenity” – Photo courtesy Lakewood Yacht Club
Congratulations to Bob Fuller, Concours Chairman & Paul Merryman, Concours Co-Chairman, the Directors and Volunteers for another successful Concours! This team continuous to produce one of the top classic boat shows in the country. Thanks to both the show organizers and Padgett Group for sending us this informative Press Release and providing access to their impressive photo gallery.
Woody Boater HQ
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I love that wooden Helton outboard featured on the header today with the big 64 Johnson.
Notice the Brownie camera on the dash and the folding school desk tops on the rear of the front seats. Way cool…
Helton Boat Works, Inc. 3134 Old Spanish Trail
Houston, Texas. Built boats from 1960 to 1964. Also found some literature that indicated that Helton boats stopped manufacturing after 1961. So further research may be required on this local wooden marque. – Texx
I have a 1952 Helton so they started way before that the boat is in the pic tha says the crowded docks very front
Thanks Ellery – Looks like I need to do more research on the Helton wooden boat marque. They look great.
Yes you do I have a 1954 Helton runabout I am now working on.
Keels and Wheels is a very unique show and worth going to!
So lets see, 14000 people at a show, 10 static dock shots. Matt gives us a dressing down about dock shots and the lack of social media and you post this story?
I take 400 photos of our Meredith NH show with story and you reject it for the same reason. Maybe you need a new captcha for content.
Yeah! Where’s all the peeps? And how about a couple of those exotic automobiles too? After all something had to tow these boats to the show. Right? Wouldn’t a big old V-16 make a pretty good tow car?
Hi Randy, I am totally confused. When did we reject anything? We feature toilet seats! As to this show. We finally got a form Press release, and since we did make a point of old school communications from this specific show, we felt that it should be covered. And yes, dock shots.. Lots of boring dock shots. But at least its some awareness. As we have always said. help us help you..
Very nice show but the story would have been a much more compelling tale if it contained far less ( or preferably absolutely nothing at all) about the celebrities, quasi celebrities, or the sponsors, and alternately confined itself to fun facts about the boats and their owners.
Dock shots (btw nothing wrong with a well composed dock shot) or not I am very sure I would have found Randy’s story about the Merideth NH event to be a much more memorable , rich and action packed report , certainly less stuffy and definitely celebrity free.
Dock shots are handy if one is interested in cockpit, engine, upholstery or dash details. Moving shots get the adreniline elevated. Both categories can be sloppy or outstanding depending on composition or subject matter. I like both categories. There is room for both, right? CQ
CQ you are absolutely correct; the ideal mix would be dock and action shots… however, though times are a changing, it’s still occasionally ( but not always )difficult for a boat-less “reporter” to find someone willing to let them tag along and photograph their (and others) hijinks on the waves.
Photo Courtesy the Bullen Family & Toronto ACBS
Agree 100%
it is great that woodyboater even got coverage of the event and I am for one happy that we even got to see the account of the show that we did. Quit whining about the article if you can do better; go to a show, take the pictures and write the article. Otherwise just enjoy what we have and keep the criticism to yourself
Ian: I do go to shows, I take pictures, I post photos of shows, I do stories , I have my own blog Lapestrakes Rule and I can say that I can do better .
This story is missing all the exciting elements of the show. If memory serves (which is getting increasingly rare) the show started off with the sinking of a Century. Then they burned down a hotel, and the after party at Twin Peaks lasted for weeks until it turned into a major shootout this weekend. This stuff is pure journalistic gold!
As for Randy’s story, I can’t imagine anything not written by Troy getting turned down.
Thank you for the great report on a really cool show! There is a huge difference in presentation and organization when you mix cars and boats together in a sponsored, world-class event. These run with an entirely different set of protocols than the the typical ACBS or local club event and as such, are publicized much more heavily and yes, the sponsors are featured.
14,000 people attending and enjoying old boats and cars in a beautiful setting – whatever they are doing seems to be working…
We saw pictures of the top boats, a list of the major winners and a little background on the show, it’s beneficiaries and personalities. What’s not to like?
This is such a wonderful event, and still remains a priority on my bucket list (maybe next year). I enjoyed the “press release” and appreciate the mention of great sponsors and individuals that support this effort to benefit such a great humanitarian cause in the area.
Thanks for the report!
Hi Randy (Captain Grumpy),
Since 2011 I have prepared a number of boat show reports that we have received from you.
Not So Live-ish Story on Lake Winnipesaukee – Aug. 2, 2011
Captain Grumpy – Live-ish from Lake Winnipesaukee – July 29, 2012
Reporting Live-ish from Meredith, NH – July 20, 2013
But I went back and checked my Texx@Woody Boater e-mail archives and it appears I didn’t receive the 2014 boat show story you are referring to. Sorry we missed it. We know it takes a great deal of time and effort to put together time sensitive boat show reports for Woody Boater, and appreciate the effort. – Texx
Ah !…The joys of being a daily web page editor…Damned if you do….Damned if you don’t.
Thank you! Do you have social media share buttons on your article pages so that the readers can easily share on their personal social media pages? Am I missing them? I’ve looked throughout, but I can copy and paste the link if that is the only option! Really appreciate you including the results announcement!
Hi Kim – Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page and you will see the social media links. We also posted today’s story twice (AM & PM) on our Woody Boater Facebook page. – Texx