Since the 2013 Houston Boat Show is ongoing this week, Tom Oncken passed along some notes and photos of the first time the woodies and old motors graced the Show at the Astrohall.
Notes from Tom: See the attached photos of the 1987 Houston International Boat, Sport, and Travel Show in the Houston Astrohall. It was our first group exhibit as we were trying to form the Wooden Boat Owners Association of Texas.
We had no handrails and smoking was allowed in the Astrohall. People could spill their beer in our boats. Somebody alerted the Fire Marshal and he enforced the fuel tank rules. So we all had to come to the show one night and move the boats out of the Astrohall, empty their gas tanks, and return the boats to the exhibit. I only had to remove my two 12 gallon portable tanks. We had to pump out the other five inboard tanks. We started at 10pm and finished about 2am.
The following boats were displayed in 1987:
Tom Oncken – 1958 18’ Holmes Fishing Runabout with 1984 Evinrude 115hp outboard and 1947 Johnson 5hp kicker
Rawley M. Outlaw, Jr. – 1965 19’ Century Sabre Gull Wing named “Scamper”
Craig Harrison – 1968 19’ Century Resorter powered by 290hp Chrysler V-8
Dale and Claudia Guy – 1947 18’ Chris-Craft Sportsman named “Memories”
Orris Brown – 1960 18’ Chris-Craft Continental powered by 185hp Chevrolet V-8 283cid
Larry and Lucy Lee – 1952 15½’ Correct Craft Jr. Ski Boat powered by 75hp Gray Marine 4 Cylinder named “Misfit”
The exhibit was run by Craig Harrison in 1987 who eventually handed it off to me when he moved to Dallas. I ran it until the turn of the century when I handed off to the Southwest Chapter of ACBS. Wayne Myers and his brother, Lester, were some of the most dedicated helpers I know. They usually covered the exhibits during the weekdays, but you couldn’t keep Wayne away on weekends either. I was there every day. And thats the facts folks, from Tom Oncken
