by Ken Powell member of the Bob Spletz Land-O-Lakes chapter
For the last 28 years, at noon on Sunday of the August long weekend, a collection of antique wooden boats assemble a half mile from the town harbour in the little town of Kenora,Ontario, Canada. It is known as the HarbourFest Annual Wooden Boat Parade.
Years ago, 40-50 boats would show up but these days the numbers average around 25 boats. It is too bad as there are upwards of 60 wooden boats on the lake. Most of the famous names are represented: such as Chris Craft, Shepherd, Century, Greavette, Hacker Craft, Lyman etc.
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The parade begins with the Ontario Provincial police boat leading the way around the Harbour and then by the town docks where the crowd can see all the boats and hear the description of each one. The boats then do another pass around the harbour, although this time everyone does a full throttle pass along the shoreline where a rod and custom car show is taking place and that crowd loves it. The boats then tie up at the public docks so the spectators can walk around the docks and have a close up look, and talk to the owners.
The crowd then votes on their favourites.
Anyone can participate and there is no entrance fee. If anyone is interested in coming up north next August to join us, the more the merrier.
