ACBS Symposium at the Mystic Seaport
April 12-15, 2007
At Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut, the finest place in this country to explore all there is about the vintage boating pastime, we explored the legendary heritage of early 20th century recreational motor boating in the United States and Canada, and heard guest speakers and breakout “hands-on” sessions of all aspects of the hobby from expert historians, restorers and fellow collectors.
Held biennially since 1991, the 2007 ACBS Vintage Boating Symposium continued the tradition of exploring all the facets of our exciting pastime. Amidst the beautiful and temperate early spring weather of southern New England, the ACBS Symposium encompassed three distinct events, making it truly a triple-crown ACBS weekend: the ACBS spring Quarterly Board Meeting, the first ever ACBS Marque Club Summit, and of course, the biennial ACBS Vintage Boating Symposium.
The 2007 ACBS Vintage Boating Symposium
By Hal Sanderson
The Mystic Seaport Museum of America and the Sea provided a wonderful venue for our April 12 – 15 Symposium. The word that was used in the program was “Grace”and there is no better place to explore that gracefulness , and all there is about the vintage boating pastime than Mystic Seaport in quaint Mystic, Connecticut. There is much to be learned at the seaport museum and we were given an opportunity to take in as much as we could absorb in 3 days.
We were allowed to tour the “Sheds” where there are 500 plus boats in storage that will probably be there forever. All types and all sizes were represented. We were toured through the archives and photo lab areas along with finding stuff that we were looking for. I found original plans from a life boat that my great , great Uncle built for the lifeboat service in the 1800’s. There will be a copy arriving soon to grace my office wall.
This was an unbelievable event for us boaters. Could have not asked for any more. Attending an official quarterly meeting of ACBS was an educational experience and I learned quickly why they get so much done. They are organized and do it right. Friday morning session accomplished all that they had on their agenda and then some.
Afternoon sessions included a “Behind the Scenes at Mystic Seaport where we did the tour of collections and research. A building of one acre houses all of their collections and it was a treat to just browse through this wonderful place.
Tony Mollica of the Gar Wood Society presented his talk on the Heritage of Early Recreational Motor Boating and the industrialists that headed up this era. Gar Wood was quite a guy along with his family.
The evening session included a talk by Mary Anne Stets of Mystic Seaport who heads up the Collections and Business Development at the Seaport. She presented slides on the collections of the Rosenfelds that includes over 800,000 images. We did not see all of them!!!
ACBS provided the forum for the first ever Marque Club Summit where all heads of the various boat clubs around the country were gathered on a panel to discuss what they could do for ACBS and what ACBS could do for them. It concluded with membership growth. You will hear more on this as time goes on. It was a special treat to visit with each acquaintance that I have known but never met before. We all had a lot to share and it was a very busy time. Chairman and ACBS Director Mike Gresham tackled this job and provided us with a master directory as it stands right now of the clubs in existence and pledged to further this project and it has been noted that ACBS will devote space in the Rudder magazine for more of this in the future. We all have archives and information on our particular boat of choice.
We got down to the nuts and bolts of boating with sessions on Varnish and everything inside of it with Jim Murdock. The Science of Wood and how it reacts to the elements with Don Danenberg and Bringing Old Iron to Life The ABC’s of Vintage Marine Engines with Dan Acierno. Boyd Mefferd presented on some of the 1,000 boats that he has dealt with over time and Chris Smith presented on his Reflections on a life with Chris- Craft. What it was like to work with his father and grandfather and his humorous experiences at Algonac and Holland Michigan plants.
Key note speaker Terry Fiest from Mt. Dora show fame and now President of the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club told us about his life around boats and his youth in Montana.
My wife, Anne, and I enjoyed meeting a lot of the ACBS folks that will be coming to New Hampshire to participate with us at our July boat show as they will be holding their quarterly Board of Directors meeting at Margate in Laconia at the same time. We are all invited to attend their Friday morning session on July 27th @ 8:00 AM and I hope a lot of you will make an effort to attend. It will be a great experience to see how our parent organization works and they want to meet you.
Plan on a busy and fun time in July at our events.
Hal Sanderson
Please stay tuned - for we have many more photos to post ???!!!
