Once again, the Texas Chapter of the Antique Outboard Motor Club, Inc. (AOMCI) joined the Southwest Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society (ACBS) to co-exhibit boats and motors at the huge annual Houston International Boat, Sport & Travel Show held at the NRG (formerly Reliant) Center. This is a huge show – over 1100 new “for sale” boats were there accompanied by all kinds of outdoor gear, RVs, campers and ‘what all’.
The theme of the 61st show was, “Rock the Boat!”. Considering that most rock and roll music worth listening to came from the same 50’s and 60’s as our vintage boats and motors, I’d say we really rocked the joint. By popular acclaim, the most appealing and crowd pleasing boats and motors were indeed our oldies. We uber-wowed the crowds again in the main lobby area of the NRG Center where folks had to pass by us to enter the show.
All our exhibitors pulled some display booth duty during the 10-day show that spanned two weekends (except for the Jan 9 Saturday of infamy for which the boat show was closed to allow the Houston Texans to show up for the disastrous play-off ). During these sessions, we were asked every imaginable question about old boats and motors making our experiences really fun. After all these years, folks stop by our booth telling us of treasures stored in their barns and garages. We seek to help them fix up or find new homes for motors and boats and especially encourage them to join us in our hobby clubs.
John Platou and Alan Bischof led our organization’s other most visited feature. Supported by chapter members and interested volunteers, we again sponsored the construction of an 8’ wooden pram-style dinghy with all the final assembly work done by kids attending the show. This event has proven to be a great crowd pleaser over the last five shows.
Also again we co-sponsored Kids Build a Motor. A well cleaned up 5 hp Evinrude kicker was completely disassembled and reassembled at least four times by kids under supervision by John Platou. Kids clustered around the motor and many had a turn to pull the power head off, handle what a piston feels like and feel how gears mesh together. Kids really like this project. Some kids didn’t want to do anything else at the show.
We launched a new feature with the kids this year, Kids Paint a Boat! During the show, kids sectioned off the hull of one of our prams into random designs and painted in the patterns with primary tempura colors. When they were done, the whole hull was covered in cool little splotches of creativity. During the entire Houston Boat show, our features were the only kids’ activities free of charge to families. Spanning two weekends, we logged almost 300 youthful boat and motor builders and painters. Free raffle type tickets were given to each kid. At the end of the show, we had a drawing and drew the winning ticket holder, who won the wooden dinghy for keepsies. John Platou and Alan Bischof put a great deal of work into this Kids booth each year and should be applauded for their amazing job which is all for the kids.
Di Johnson and Adam Finn organized this year’s lobby exhibit. Dedicated club members have been displaying at this show since 1987. Tom Oncken was on hand with his nostalgic photos and brochures and took us down memory lane to the first show (where all the boats had to temporarily exit the show to empty gas tanks to please the Fire Marshal). Among our boats, two impeccable inboards anchored the front and center spots of our display:
First time displayer Walt Thompson from Volente, TX brought his beautiful 1953 Chris Craft 19’ Racing Runabout, “Ghost” powered by its original 158hp “MBL”. This was one sleek lady -very nice! Walt also has an early 1960’s fiberglass boat matched up with an Evinrude 75HP that has been in his family for years. Walt recently joined our club and we hope to see him at our club meets.
- Bob Germany brought his newly acquired 1948 19′ Higgins Deluxe Runabout, “Freedom” – What a head-turner this is with the red trimmed white hull and bright mahogany transom!
We had a variety of outboard boats and motors on display:
- Raymond Balsam returned to the show after a few years absence with his 1964 Helton powered by matching year Johnson 75 hp. This rig gets better looking each time I see it. Could it be Ray has more free time retired now?
- Darryl Hurst’s 1963 15’ Proske with 1964 Johnson 60hp Super Sea Horse. The Proske is indeed a Houston-built wooden boat and Daryl did a beautiful job on the restoration.
- John Platou’s 1960 16′ Cruisers, Inc., powered by his 1960 75hp Evinrude Starflite. John completely rebuilt the keel and hull of this boat as evidenced by a big pickle jar of the 4000+ bronze machine screws he replaced in the process.
- Bob Macaluso’s 1957 16′ Crosby Capri powered by a 1963 Evinrude 40hp Lark. This boat is a hybrid with a gorgeous wood deck over a beautifully restored white fiberglass hull.
- Di Johnson had on hand his 1957 golden Feathercraft, Vagabond II powered by a 1958 Merc Mark 58, 45 hp. This is the sexiest aluminum runabout of all times with that curvy, barrel back tumblehome transom.
- Ellery Andrew brought his 1955 Helton 14′ runabout powered by a 1957 Johnson 35. Ellery also displayed his unique creativity in making fun stuff for his grandkids with his 42″ boat wagon complete with deck seams.
- Knut Bulow once again showed off his superb boatbuilding craftsmanship via his 18′ self-built Kenosha canoe. What a beauty!
- Another first timer, Paul Johnson brought his restored 1941 Skaneateles Boat Company, Hydro-Lite 8′ mahogany strip constructed dinghy powered by a 1939 Johnson model LT-39 5 hp Johnson. This is really a rare boat to be seen away from the Finger Lakes, NY region.
Two youthful boat builders proudly displayed their prowess (with a little help from Grandpa John Platou):
- Youngster Jack Toole of Waldon on Lake Houston, TX showed his 8′ Owner-built MiniMost constructed from plans in a 1978 Science & Mechanics Magazine. This boat is powered by modified 1959 Evinrude 3hp (Masquerading as a 175 HP Mercury Black Max). More people saw the 175 HP cowling not realizing the cowling was just hung over the 3hp and were amazed on how such a large motor could possibly be on such a small boat. We laughed to our selves watching people’s expressions.
- Ty Bayless of Kingwood, TX displayed his 8′ owner-built dinghy powered by his 1963 Johnson 3HP. This is the pattern boat for “Kids Build a Boat”.
We had a great turnout of free-standing outboards on display this year.
- If we gave out an award for enthusiasm, it would go fired-up member Jerry Ball, who brought his beautifully restored 1958 Johnson 18hp. Jerry got some expert aid from Tom Oncken on that baby, but he also brought his self-restored 1935 Minn-Kota electric trolling motor which was rescued by Jerry as a $5 basket-case refugee of a metal scrap dealer.
- Another first-timer to this show is Morten Lovstad, of the Woodlands, who brought his 1929 Super Elto Lightweight Model 309 3.5 HP folding motor. This motor has always been in his family having been purchased by his grandfather. The motor is very original and quite an attention-getter.
- Mark Betner once again rounded out the show with his vintage Johnson collection with one sweet 1957 Evinrude 18 hp factory electric start in there for flavor. Mark’s motors were wrapped around a feature corner of our display, and included the entire 1957 Johnson line-up of the Holiday Bronze (red) motors, specifically the 3hp, 5.5hp, 7.5hp, 10hp, 18hp, and 35hp.
- Adam Finn brought a couple of his favorite fine specimens of his collection including his 1958 Johnson Model AD-12, 7.5 HP Sea Horse and his 1960 Sea King 3hp, which was the same model and year as Adam’s first motor as a kid.
- Past TX Chapter President Ed Slominski wasn’t able to show off his restored Lyman, but he did bring his pristine 1956 Merc Mark 30, 30 hp which is as clean a motor as you can get.
- Di Johnson returned with his three childhood motors on display; Elgin 2½hp, Johnson 5hp (TD-20) and Mercury KG-4 complete with his dad’s photos of smilin’ Di using each motor on Keuka Lake, NY.
- Tom Oncken wowed us again with his awesome little kicker collection including:
- 1937 Evinrude Model 4201 “Scout” 0.9HP
- 1940 Evinrude Model 4353“Sportwin” 3.3HP
- 1925 Johnson Model A-25 “Light Twin” 2.0HP
- 1949 Martin “20” 2 1/3HP
- 1938 Waterwitch “Mae West” Model 571.10 2.5HP
- 1939 Sea King Model “WK” Thor 2.0HP
- John Plato once again displayed his entire lineup of 1960 Evinrude outboards including the 3hp Ducktwin, 3hp Lightwin, 5.5hp Fisherman, 10hp Sportwin, 18hp Fastwin, 40hp Big Twin, 40hp Lark, and 75hp Starflite on his boat.
- Wrapping up the free-standing motors on display was Paul Johnson’s very original 1955 Wizard Super 5, which you don’t see many of in this fine condition.
Click Here to see the rest of the photos from the Houston Boat Show
This Article was written by Di Johnson and edited by Tom Oncken
