Boaters From Around The Country Are Racing Towards South Lake Tahoe This Weekend

1926 Presidents Cup Race – Photo Courtesy Rosenfeld Collection, Mystic Seaport

The first of two popular antique & classic boat shows to be held at Lake Tahoe over the next few weeks is this weekend, in beautiful South Lake Tahoe. And leading the charge of boats is “Mercury” – a unique 35’ 1926 aluminum double-ended race boat which is on hand for everyone to enjoy.

THE 5th ANNUAL SOUTH TAHOE WOODEN BOAT CLASSIC
Racing Boats from Dollar Family to Headline Show

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA – Lake Tahoe’s rich maritime history “comes to life” at the 5th Annual South Tahoe Wooden Boat Classic scheduled for July 27-28, 2012 at the Tahoe Keys Marina and Yacht Club.

Sponsored by the Antique and Classic Boat Society of Northern CA/Lake Tahoe, this year’s show will once again feature boats that were originally owned by a prominent Lake Tahoe family who played a significant part in the lake’s storied maritime past.

“The idea of honoring Tahoe’s well-known families and their connection to maritime history at Lake Tahoe really came to us last year and we decided to keep it going,” says STWBC Chairman, Steve Caplan.

Last year, the show featured “White Smoke” from the Pope Estate and in the previous year, “Thunderbird” from the Whittell Estate. The 2012 South Tahoe Wooden Boat Classic will showcase boats once belonging to Robert Stanley Dollar Jr. The Dollars, whose family businesses included the timber and steamship industries, built their Tahoe estate in 1927 on the North Shore that is now known as Dollar Point.

Stanley Jr., who fell in love with boats and racing as a 10-year-old at the lake, later competed against his friend Henry Kaiser whose family owned the Kaiser Estate on the West Shore.

During his amateur racing career which spanned 30-plus years Stanley piloted “Uncle Sam”, “Baby Skip-A-Long”, “Mercury”, “Slo-Mo-Shun IV”,
and “Skip-A-Long of California”. Boat racing took the young Dollar around the world, from the Philippines to Europe to Detroit, and always back to Lake Tahoe. Dollar Jr. won the esteemed Harmsworth Trophy in 1947 on the Detroit River and the APBA Gold Cup in 1952 on Lake Washington in Seattle.

This year, the South Tahoe Wooden Boat Classic will have several of the Dollar boats on display including “Tamarack” a 1931, 28′ Gar Wood triple cockpit runabout purchased by Robert Stanley Dollar Sr. for his daughter Diana. Diana’s daughter, Dr. Heidi Cary of Tiburon will show “Tamarack” at the show.

Baby Skipalong’s Vintage Packard Power – William Soley Photo

Also on display will be “Mercury” a 35’ 1926 aluminum double-ended racer, owned by the State of California; “Vent d’Ete” a 1915 14’ Canadian sailboat now part of the Tahoe Maritime Museum’s collection; “Baby Skip-A-Long” a 1924 26’ Gold Cup Nevins Racer owned by Edward and Deborah Scott of Oakland; and “Skip-A-Long of California” a 1948, 30’ aluminum hydroplane that was the Harmsworth and APBA Gold Cup winner.
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Fellow Woody Boater Brian Robinson from Robinson Restoration in Southern California is also at the show this year with “Empress” their 1938 22′ Gar Wood Streamliner… He sent us these fresh shots a few minutes ago from the docks at Tahoe Keys Marina and Yacht Club.

Here’s a shot of “Shooting Star” a rare 1938 28′ Hackercraft Triple Cockpit Runabout which is the sister boat to “Seaflow II” the Hackercraft from Freedom Boat Service we reported on from Algonac last month.