24 June 2018

Göran R Buckhorn writes:

The 27th annual WoodenBoat Show opened on Friday, 22 June, at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. As usual, the show is produced and presented by WoodenBoat and hosted by the Museum. The event runs for three days, so if you are in New England you still have time today to head to Mystic, which is by Interstate 95 (Exit 90 between New York and Boston).

One hundred vendors have put up tents to sell stuff that you need for your boat, and things that you didn’t know that you needed for your boat. You don’t have a boat? Not a problem, you can buy one at the show. They come in all sizes. You can even buy a boat kit and put it together in your back garden, or front garden if you have very understanding neighbours.

Besides what the show has to offer you, the Museum runs its daily activities and exhibitions, including the travelling exhibitions, The Vikings Begin and The Vinland Map Saga. Both exhibitions will be on display through 30 September.

As a rowing website, HTBS concentrated on rowing craft at the show. However, amongst the pictures below are also a couple of non-rowing boats and one engine that caught the eye of the HTBS photographer.

Whether you come for the WoodenBoat Show or you are visiting the Museum on an ordinary summer day, do go for a ride on the Mystic River. There are several options, take the steamboat Sabino, a waterfront tour with Liberty. Or walk down to the Museum’s Boathouse to rent a small sailboat, rowboat, or the Museum’s new pedal-boat, Yankee.