Celebrating 50 Years of ACBS: North Carolina Coastal & Piedmont Chapter

It all started with Merl W. “Bill” Baldwin, Jr. (June 6, 1935-October 14, 2015). Known as “The Helmsman,” Bill wrote science fiction–specifically military space opera. The Helmsman Saga (8 books) was his best-known work, hence his nickname. He worked at NASA at Cape Canaveral supporting Project Mercury and later as a contractor for the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas.

When Bill relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina from Dallas in 2003, he realized that something was missing—no “boat buddies.” So, Bill took it upon himself to start the process to create an Antique & Classic Boat Society chapter. Mike Mayer, also a recent transplant, caught wind of Bill’s efforts and joined in the journey. ACBS officially recognized our chapter on January 15, 2005. Bill and Mike were both present to receive the charter. Member Lonnie Sieck recalls, “I will never forget the meeting at the Newport News Mariners’ Museum when the ACBS Board approved our chapter and Mike Meyer came out of the board meeting, practically screaming in excitement.”

Bill and Mike began recruiting members and the first official chapter meeting was held on January 27, 2005. On February 18, 2005, the chapter elected its first officers that included:

Our chapter’s first newsletter.

President Bill Baldwin
Vice President Mike Mayer
Secretary Gil Slack
Treasurer Bob Banta
Director Paul Merryman
Director Jacob Deegan
Director Dick Peterson
Director Bill Locke

Originally, there were about 12-15 “active” members with a total membership of 20-ish. The chapter’s membership has slowly grown since then to an all-time high of 70 members in 2024.  

Our chapter consistently participates in the boat show at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. Over the years we have also sporadically held our own boat show in various locations. Events and meetings were initially held primarily in the Raleigh, Durham, and the Chapel Hill Triangle area. But chapter leadership began to notice clusters of members in the New Bern and the Wilmington areas too. We also had members spread all over the eastern half of the state. 

Since our chapter’s name no longer reflected our demographics, a more inclusive name was needed. On March 21, 2019, ACBS officially recognized the new name of our chapter: North Carolina Coastal & Piedmont. Subsequently, we developed a new logo, but we honored our heritage by keeping the same graphic and just changing the name.

Bath, NC outing.

As with many organizations, eventually, our chapter needed reinvigoration. But, in 2019, our chapter leadership began a concerted effort to revitalize. We resurrected the newsletter and renamed “Messing About in Boats.” We also created an entirely new website and keep it updated and packed with information and resources.

We also added new events to the calendar, holding at least one event per month. We vary the event location based on where our members are clustered: Raleigh, New Bern, and Wilmington. In February 2024, we held a “regional workshop” on the same day in each of these cluster areas. Hosted by members, each group had different planned activities, all of which were well attended. We plan to do this again each winter.  

To keep it interesting, we vary event types and sometimes plan a co-member outing at the same time as a hands-on workshop. We held our first-ever overnight river cruise from Washington, North Carolina to Bath, North Carolina in 2024. It was so popular that we plan to repeat it. We are very lucky to have a member who has a family vacation home in Bath and she has opened it up for our use.

Outing at the Mariners’ Museum & Park, Newport News, VA.

We have several members with workshops, tools, skills, and knowledge that can help those who need help with boat renovation projects. This is also a huge member benefit.

Our chapter also has a solid awards program, which is a fun draw for members. President’s award, Special Recognition award, Rookie of the Year award, Broken Cable award, the Cal Jordan Spirit award, and other smaller awards all recognize those who have contributed to the success of our chapter or whose accomplishments need to be recognized. The award nominations are sometimes very funny!

And speaking of awards, our chapter has received several ACBS awards over the years:

• 2019/2020 ACBS Chapter Growth Award: Greatest Number of New Members
• 2019/2020 ACBS Chapter Growth Award: Greatest Percentage Increase in New Members
• 2019/2020 Chapter President Alan Hills won the ACBS Broken Gunwale Award for his misadventures at Lake James
• 2020/2021 ACBS Small Chapter Publications Award–editor Judy Hills

Our chapter believes in supporting and collaborating with other ACBS Chapters. In addition to the ACBS International show, we publicize the Sunnyland show, the Smith Mountain Lake Chapter annual show, the Chesapeake Bay Chapter annual show, and shows sponsored by the Blue Ridge Chapter. We also invite members of the Blue Ridge Chapter and Smith Mountain Lake chapters to attend our events (e.g., a workshop at Lowell’s Boats in Greensboro). Early this past year, we invited Smith Mountain Lake, Blue Ridge, Chesapeake Bay, and Tidewater chapters to gather with us at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia for a program on the USS Monitor. Our chapter paid for the program and the others were our guests.

Several of our members are also members of Blackbeard Sailing Club (BSC) in New Bern. BSC has a wonderful facility on Broad Creek, a tributary of the Neuse River that includes a clubhouse, a large picnic pavilion, deep water docks, and a bathhouse. BSC has allowed our chapter to use its facility for several years for our chapter boat show, enabling those with cruisers to take part. In 2018, Hurricane Florence did significant damage to BSC buildings and our chapter members pitched in and used their carpentry skills to help rebuild the bathhouse.

Our chapter helps to sponsor the North Carolina Maritime Museum (Beaufort) and the Cape Fear Community College boat shows. We also provide a yearly $1,000 chapter- scholarship for a student in the Cape Fear Community College’s boat-building program.

We attribute our success as a chapter to our collaborations, our membership chair, our newsletter, our website, our calendar of events, our awards program, the willingness of our members to help with boat projects and our solid leadership team who always support our events.

As ACBS celebrates its 50^th year in 2025, our chapter will celebrate its 20^th year.  We are looking forward to many more successful years.