The morning air over Lake Coeur d’Alene was crisp and bright, and before long it was filled with the unmistakable sound of vintage marine engines coming to life. With glorious sunshine blessing the region throughout the weekend, the setting was nearly perfect for the 2026 Antique & Classic Boat Festival—a celebration of beautiful boats, great…
If you weren’t able to join us at the 2026 ACBS Vintage Boat Week, we hope these photos are the the next best thing. The spray and smiles are contagious and everyone is enjoying the ride! Here are just a few highlights of boats in attendance. Follow ACBS on social media to keep up with…
Exciting news! After Inland Empire Chapter’s Alan Wardsworth rescued a 1951 Ventnor runabout from a barn where it had sat since 1985, Paul Rodkey agreed to take on this hand-on learning opportunity as the official Inland Empire Chapter project boat. Inland Empire members and students from the local Central Valley High School are gaining experience…
The Inland Empire ACBS wrapped up the 2025 boating season with a classic: the annual fall run up the St. Joe River from Harrison, Idaho, to St. Maries. For a while, it looked like the trip might not even happen—Harrison woke up to an Air Quality Index of 165 thanks to Montana forest fires. But…
By Barry Provorse, Inland Empire Antique & Classic Boat Society Sandpoint, Idaho and the Inland Empire chapter of ACBS celebrated its Silver Wake Celebration, the 25th showing of antique and classic boats on the city’s boardwalk during the sunny weekend of July 11 through 13th. Boats in the show were a good representation of Lake Pend…
The wooden boat community in the Inland Northwest, which could be considered to include eastern Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana, and even southern British Columbia is a very strong one. There are over 400 wooden boats currently on Lake Coeur d’ Alene alone, not counting boats at the other three main lakes in the area. …
By Alan & Liz Wardsworth, Inland Empire Chapter If you have been following the saga of our 1963 Belmont, you probably won’t believe it ended up being a successful summer of boating! Belmont produced luxury runabouts from 1956 to 1966 before they converted to fiberglass flat bottom racers. Most Belmonts have Cadillac power but founder,…
From the Inland Empire Chapter The 2023 Coeur d’ Alene Antique and Classic Boat Festival (Aug. 12-13), sponsored by the Inland Empire chapter, is in the books. Two weeks before the event, the show got off to a slow start with only 15 boats registered. By show date, we had 54 boats and skippers signed…
By Brian & Kathy Fair, Inland Empire Chapter Members After 2 years off, this year’s Priest Lake Dry Rot was back in full swing. 40 boats with lots of smiling, eager faces to get back to normal with a full 4-day boat show weekend. Brian and I put a spin with our own touches and…
By Nevin Bryant member of Inland Empire chapter Perhaps twenty years ago I was looking into buying a wooden boat to have at our cabin at Priest Lake, and decided I should check with my mother about the kind my father owned when they had a cabin on Murray Isle in the Thousand Islands just…
by James Rand, Inland Empire Chapter My childhood in the 50s and early 60s was spent on Long Island sound where we belonged to a yacht club. My father had Chris-Craft cruisers beginning with wooden ones and later fiberglass. I bought my first boat at age 14. I loved fishing, water skiing, and scuba diving.…
by Rex Lytle, Inland Empire chapter My love of wood boats started when I was a child and my dad owned a small Wolverine wood fishing boat that was probably 14 feet long. In the early 2000 my wife and I purchased a 1961 Chris-Craft Continental wood boat at an estate auction. Every time we…