Spring has finally arrived and with it another fun-filled season of antique boating. It’s time to take the boats out of storage, dust off the cobwebs, and get ready to spend time on the water with fellow ACBS members.
I’m having a great time as your President this year, attending the Northcoast Ohio annual dinner and Toronto’s indoor boat show and meeting in January, the Crystal River boat show in February, and the St. John’s River Cruise and Mt. Dora’s boat show in March. What a way to start the year!
As you know, my pet project for the year is Youth Development, and what a job Chris Eden and his team did with the Tiller in the last issue of the Rudder. It's wonderful to see our young people becoming involved in boating and sharing their pictures and stories. Start saving all those drawings and pictures for next year's edition. Les Demaline is working hard on implementing a youth program for the younger generation. I encourage each of you to include children in your boating activities.
We have a number of exciting things in store for the upcoming year and beyond –
Dunc Hawkins and the Fundraising Committee have put together a calendar for 2002, which will be available by May 1 for sale at Chapter events. It is a full-size calendar and will feature reprints of old boat ads and construction diagrams. This calendar will not only provide an additional source of income for the Chapters but will become a collectible part of ACBS history.
Jack Lynett is in charge of gathering information and archival pieces to be locked away in our Time Capsule. The Time Capsule will be opened in 2025 – the 50th anniversary of ACBS – and the contents donated to Archives to pass onto the next generation of boating enthusiasts.
The award for the “Best Preserved Original Boat”, originally presented for the Silver Anniversary only, will now become an annual award. John Howard and the Judging Committee are developing guidelines for this award which will be sent to the local Chapters.
The 2001 Antique Motorboating Symposium will be held May 18-20 in Clayton, NY at The Antique Boat Museum. This symposium promises to be a wonderful balance of “work and pleasure”, with an interesting array of seminars combined with tours and boat rides in the beautiful Thousand Islands. Many thanks to Stan Petersen for coordinating this event, and I hope to see many of you there.
I am happy to report that due to the hard work of Tab Miller, Dick Sherwood, and Kathy Snyder, this year’s directory went to press the first week of March. This directory, the largest ever, will include over 6,000 individual and family memberships and a registry of over 15,000 boats and engines.
I look forward to seeing many of our West Coast members at our next Quarterly Meeting in Napa, California on April 26-29. Quarterly Meetings are open to all members of the ACBS and we welcome and encourage your attendance.
Happy Boating!
Jean M. Hoffman
Email: jhoffman@lk-george.com
Work: (518) 371-8683
Home: (518) 371-7868
Camp: (518) 656-9459