57th Houston Boat Show, January 4 – 13, 2013
See the photo Gallery; click on a picture to enlarge it: [print_gllr id=1621]
Once again, the Texas Chapter of AOMCI was invited to join the Southwest Chapter of ACBS to co-exhibit outboard boats and motors at the huge Houston Boat Show held at the Reliant Center. Over 1000 new boats were there accompanied by all kinds of outdoor gear, campers and ‘what all’. However by popular acclaim, the most appealing and crowd pleasing boats (and motors) displayed to the crowds were our oldies. This year’s exhibit was organized by Di Johnson and Adam Finn, who put together a high quality display of boats and motors. This is the 26th year that the antiques and classics have graced the Houston Show. In fact we were pleased to have on hand and joining us, Mr. Wayne Myers, who co-hosted the original oldies display in 1987. Aside from vintage inboards including two excellent Chris-Crafts and a Garwood, the following TX AOMCI members displayed outboard powered boats:
- Chip Rathbun’s 1958 13′ Corson with W1958 50HP Johnson “Fat Fifty” sporting a high gloss polish.
- Dan Kubecka’s awesome 1957 15′ Yellow Jacket Riviera w/1955 Evinrude 25.
- Bob Macaluso’s durable 1957 15′ Yellow Jacket Catalina w/ Mark 55. This is a runner you see at all of our wet meets.
- Di Johnson’s 1948 15′ Thompson TVT w/1949 Speeditwin & his childhood outboard collection.
- Knut Bulow’s impeccably restored 1957 15′ CarVer Colonel Delux w/ 1958 Johnson 35HP Seahorse.
- Adam Finn’s immaculate 1958 15′ Rexcraft Regent w/ 1959 Johnson 35HP Seahorse. This boat looks brand new!
- Jeff Workman’s Z Boat- 9′ Home Built w/ 1956 Johnson 5.5HP (see below).
- 14 year old Jack Stevens’ 1960 14′ Glen-L “Zip” w/1960 Johnson 40HP and his home built 8’ Minimost Hydro w/ 1963 Evinrude 18 HP. Jack has the boating and old motor “bug” – we love that.
- Emma Grace Bayless’ self-built 8’ Minimost Hydro and 1973 Johnson 6hp. This is an ACBS Corinthian Award winning rig.
John Platou, Jeff Workman and Jeff Stillwell led our booth’s most visited feature. Supported by other chapter members, we sponsored an ambitious project to build two 8’ wooden dinghies with all the assembly work done by kids attending the show. This event has proven to be a real crowd pleaser over the last three shows. This year over two weekends (one Saturday hampered by show closure for the Houston Texan’s football playoff game), we logged in 431 youthful boat builders that built two complete boats. This was the only kids’ activity at the entire Houston Boat Show that was free of charge to families. At the end of the show, we drew two winning tickets from the collective crew of builders and presented the boats to their new owners.
Free standing outboards were also on display. John Platou displayed his complete line-up of 1960 Evinrudes, leaving home only his 75 hp V-4. Included was John’s fresh-out-of –the-box, never-been-in-the-water, immaculate 1963 Evinrude Fastwin 18 HP. John also showed off his wooden Hoosier Aqua Plane made by the Tippecanoe Boat Company, Tippecanoe Lake, IN (try and say that real fast). This was the original, towed planing board that preceded water skis.
Again, attracting more than a little interest, Di Johnson had his three childhood motors on display; Elgin 2½, Johnson 5hp (TD-20) and Mercury KE-7 complete with his dad’s photos of him using each motor. Chip Rathbun of Flower Mound, TX brought his beautifully restored 1951 Chris Craft Challenger 5 hp and a 1948 Mercury Comet 6 hp. Jeff Workman also brought his preserved 1956 Mercury Mark 6.
Captain Ty Bayless, age 6, of Kingwood, TX brought his project in progress, an 8’ Pram Utility home-built he is making from plans obtained from the Antique and Classic Boat Society booth at the 2011 Houston Boat Show.
The outboard display that grabbed the attention of most passers-by was the hand-built 9’ “Z” Boat patterned after the 8’ Be-Bop plans in the Boat Builders Handbook. This boat is a work of art with exquisite attention to detail on the covering boards, seamed deck, hatch covers and the hand-crafted windshield. Powered by a 1956 Johnson 5½ hp, this outstanding example of boat building craftsmanship was the creation of owner/builder Jeff Workman of Crosby, TX. Jeff, as influenced from his other hobby of restoring Datsun 240Z cars, built his “Z” Boat for and named the craft “Wild Child” after his 4 year old son John.
