Seems like wherever there’s a waterfront – on the sea, a bay, a river, or a lake – you’ll find some sort of celebration of boats and boating. Many of them encourage wooden boatbuilders to bring and display their labors of love, making them great events for picking up ideas, chatting up fellow enthusiasts, and showing off first-class craftsmanship and the unique personalization so many builders put into their boats. We wish we could go to them all, but our schedule limits us to Canoecopia, the WoodenBoat Show in Connecticut, the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, and the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis.
As we catch our breath between our return from Canoecopia and preparing for our own wooden boat extravaganza, OkoumeFest in May, we started thinking about some of the festivals and boat shows we wish we could attend. You’ll find them from coast to coast, as well as alongside inland lakes and waterways.
Here’s a quick list of just a few. If you plan to visit one and bring your CLC boat along with you, please let us know. If you know of an event that should be on this list and isn’t, drop us a line so we can share it with your fellow boatbuilders.
Reminder: Chesapeake Light Craft will NOT be at these boat shows unless otherwise indicated!




The Wooden Boat Festival (CLC will attend)September 5-7, Port Townsend, WA 24th Annual Antique & Classic Boat ShowSeptember 12-14, The Pointe at Mariners Landing, Smith Mountain Lake, VA

(Left, our friend Steve Bull with his Skerry last year at Greenport) Southport Wooden Boat ShowSeptember 27, Downtown Southport, NC Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival (CLC wil attend)October 3-5, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD
(Right, our friends Butch Lapetz and Lea Rondonck with their Eastport Nesting Pram at Georgetown last year) Downrigging Weekend November 1-4, Chestertown, MD