ACBS, Gravenhurst and paddles!

Our thanks again to Toronto Chapter of ACBS for inviting K&C to participate in their Gravenhurst show! It turned out to be a great day, they gave us the perfect location and we kept the kids busy - carving!

The K&C team was MB, Anthony, Micheal Freeman and Mike Leigh. We towed up the Dileas, Richardson, sea fleas and two skiffs (plus 5 carving benches and the booth!)

Dileas at nearest dock to booth

skiff across from Dileas

Paddle carving a huge hit - we ran out of blanks!

Mini-Hopper and Mini-Miss Canada also a big hit.

Windswept III, 1935 Ditchburn 52' Yacht heads to Gan.

I have known the 1935 Ditchburn, 52' Yacht Windswept III since 1993 or so along with her owner Gordon Russell. She participated in the first kids-at-risk and antique boats events I created at that time and she was the logo for Mahogany Harbour when I created that kids boat museum in 1999 with partners Gordon and Bob Bannerman.

Gordon has had her fully restored over those years and he and I have cruised her to Ottawa, Clayton, Niagara-On-The-Lake and many other interesting points along the way. For health reasons Gordon has passed her along to the new Thousand Islands Boat Museum in Gananoque and he asked me to captain her there. So the Last Cruise of the Windswept happened a few weeks ago - apparently on the only two sequential calm days of the year!

MB at the helm

never get tired of this view

Beauty shots in the Murray Canal

beautiful lines and details, custom built for Billies Brothers

Pirates off the port beam!

Steve Carter and Ian Russell

The cruise was amazingly smooth, Grant met us at Murray Canal and Ian took us all to dinner at Drake's. Second day saw us arriving in Gan to a lovely reception!

Classics Against Cancer a great day

Again this year we were invited to take a display and be part of the Classics Against Cancer Antique Car Show in Cedarvale Park Georgetown. This is a huge car show which has been going for decades - I used to participate with my 1928 Armstrong - Siddeley Touring and XK120 Roadster - when I had them.

This year weather was fine and we headed up with Dileas, Richardson, both sea fleas and our now slightly famous Paddle Carving event. As usual the paddle carving was a huge hit!

Jim discussing our sea flea programme

all carving benches busy

really amazing to watch kids get into making a beautiful thing!

The Paddle Carving Event was created by our volunteer George Graham a few years ago when we were asked to create a programme in the shop for the Police Diversions Programme kids. It went over so well we began adding it to any outing involving setting up a booth including TIBS, Gravenhurst ACBS Show etc. We are now receiving requests to bring our dog and pony show to events.

these Kids are helping their kids get it right - sure they are...

It does get a bit addictive to see those long shavings come rolling off the paddle blank, so we get kids of all ages "trying it for a minute"!

Picton Raid 2017 a blast (again)

The K&C Picton Raid is one of the volunteer team's favourite events of the year and it is eagerly looked forward to! Member and co-founder Grant Reynolds has a cottage on the water in Picton and once a year his wife escapes and Grant invites the "boys" to a long weekend of boating and fine food! The view from his deck is fantastic:

sea fleas and cedarstrip

Scott with skiff converted to sail

The view OF the deck maybe not always so scenic.....

High water required some creative adjustments

well there was one bright spot...

back on the dock and water we had lots of fun and the outboards we brought all ran! Amazing - although we had minor problems with jets coming loose. We solved those back in the shop later.

New this year was having two sea fleas at the same time and that was a blast. Anthony brought his 16' Shepherd SkiBee purchased late last season and we spent quite a bit of time troubleshooting an overheating problem he is suspicious of. But it ran well and we had some lovely rides.

"You can't take too many engines"

Scott zooming his skiff along

Anthony in Mini-Hopper

My turn

And then the food. Wonderful stuff, Grant's annual curry creation, JJ and Ray BBQ etc etc.

The weather was wonderful, the location perfect - another memorable Picton Raid thanks to Grant and Lois!

Wayne's World outing in May

For some time it has been obvious that K&C should join the Maple Leaf Antique Outboard Club as we have a growing collection of donated outboards and they are likely to become an even more significant part of our youth programmes. Let me explain.

Over the past year you will have noticed the development of our own design sea flea - the second prototype is now done and running. It represents a change in design to allow us to use it in the Boats 4 Folks two day boatbuild event. Our suspicion is that it will do a better job of bringing kids back for more because of the prospect of going fast than the rowboat.

We'll need more sea flea sized engines (3hp to 18hp) and we'd like to see more volunteers who can fix, restore and teach kids how to fix them and keep them running. What better resource for information and possible volunteers than MLAOC!

So Anthony and I headed up to my friend Wayne and Ken's shop near Port Perry to join and get into it. Turned out to be very interesting, a great group of friendly and helpful enthusiasts including a really helpful workshop by the famous Ron Stevenson!

Anthony amongst outboards!

Wayne's AristoCraft collection

Wayne's World showroom/museum

MB with our high powered skiff

Wayne's World hydro's

                









So we had a great day visiting Ken and Wayne's shop/museum. Brick Oven BBQ lunch with gourmet pizza's were great as well. This was a super event and we look forward to a close connection between MLAOC and K&C!

And by the way, we could use an Outboard Collection volunteer curator to create displays, advise on collection growth, what to restore and what to leave as a "survivor" etc.