Lake Houston meet on June 9th 2012
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Our Texas Chapter held its first summer one-day wet meet on Lake Houston, a short 30 minute drive from Houston, TX. We gathered at the Indian Shores Community Center on the east side of the lake overlooking on a beautiful shaded point. Indian Shores has a gentle launch ramp, ample parking and enough bulkhead space to tie up our boats. We had a beautiful classic Texas summer blue sky day that warmed into the low 90’s with light winds. Lake Houston ‘lake dwellers’ John Platou and Jeff Workman got on the scene early setting up hospitality tables and a BBQ grill. Other members started rolling in about 9:00AM.
We can always count on John Slator to bring interesting items to show and sell. He arrived with a heaping truckload of motors, boat equipment, outboard signs, old boating magazines and other trinkets. All day long other members perused his cache. Odds were that several good deals were made.
Jeff Workman brought the 8’ BeBop boat he is building for his 3 year old son, John from plans in Science & Mechanics Magazine. This project should be completed in the next month or so. The boat is a real looker and is powered by 1956 5 ½ Johnson in great original condition. John Platou brought his personally restored 1960 15’ Cruisers Inc. with a 1960 Evinrude 40HP. Bob Macaluso launched his beautiful 1957 Yellow Jacket powered by a 1958 Mercury Mark 58. Bob cruised the lake offering rides including Tom Onken who attended the meet with his wife.
One of our club’s youngest members is Jack Stevens, age 13. Jack brought his home-built 8’ Minimost hydro-style boat running a 1969 Evinrude 18hp. Like at the Lake LBJ meet in April, Jack gave his boat quite a workout. Frank Simon came with his aluminum boat powered by a modified Wizard electric start cranking out a lot of HP.
Brenden Macaluso had quite a rig there with a 10 ½’ Hal Kelly-designed Wetback C-Class Hydro. A 1970’s Yamato 30HP racing motor powered the hydro. This was Brenden’s maiden launch for the boat since taking ownership 2 years ago. As luck was not in the cards, 10 minutes into the run the prop snapped in half resulting in a tow to port by his dad with the faithful Yellow Jacket.
Members enjoyed a leisurely day watching the runs, talking and relaxing thru mid-morning as well as enjoying great views of the lake. The community center was air conditioned and included a full kitchen as well as other comfortable facilities. At mid-day, Adam Finn assumed chef responsibilities and grilled up some terrific hot dogs served with homemade chili prepared by his wife Susan. Cookies and water melon rounded out the food offering. Other members included Louis Rothermel, Mark Betner, Bruce Bratton and Jeff Tanner. This is the first time in quite a while that the chapter sponsored an early summer meet. General feedback from the attending members was positive and made for a good launch for a new meet. This was a nice venue and the chapter should press ahead and build upon it net year. A good time was had by all. By 3:00PM most members called it a day and headed out.