OkoumeFest 2010

Another great rendezvous of boatbuilders---aspiring, experienced, and otherwise.  Thanks so much for a terrific OkoumeFest 2010.

 OkoumeFest, in its 12th year, celebrates small wooden boats and the dedicated amateurs and professionals who build them---often from okoume plywood.

OkoumeFest 2010 was held at the CLC factory and at Matapeake State Park on Kent Island.  Here are photos and a recap from both days.  More photos along with Best Smallcraft, Best Kayak, and Best In Show winners are on Page 2.

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Nick Schade, boatbuilder, designer, and author, drove down from Connecticut with a collection of his museum-quality work.  He gave a fiberglass demonstration in the front lot on Friday.  We had a small challenge in that six Skerries were under construction in the classroom, our usual site for seminars.

John Harris showed off the new CNC machine.

Two of our four guys named Matt stood watch over the grills and kept the masses fed on Friday.

John Harris battled heat and humidity to put on a varnishing seminar.  We all learned that sometimes it can be too hot for varnish, among other things.

Slowly, but slowly, we get smarter.  This year we borrowed an all-terrain-vehicle and a big canoe trailer to ferry all of CLC's demo boats down the steep hill to the beach on Saturday morning.

It was windy.  REALLY windy, and the beach at Matapeake was a lee shore.  That made it impossible to launch small sailboats, but Nick tested the waves with his Matunuck surf kayak.

Perfect conditions for the Northeaster Dory.

The waves were breaking fairly far out, so we didn't have any trouble launching kayaks through the surf throughout the day.  This is the Shearwater Double.

We had a table where kids could build and decorate model boats.  That was pretty popular.

Ultimately, as many as 250 people were on the beach and playing in the water.

Strong breezes and shallow water were a perfect combination for our CLC SailRig.

PocketShip ate up the windy, choppy conditions, and our colleague Mark gave rides all day long.  

(John couldn't resist a flyby of the beach first thing in the morning.)

Another gratuitous PocketShip shot courtesy of Matt's telephoto lens.  The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is in the background, actually quite far away.

It was the low end of a spring tide, so it was shallow a LONG way out.  That meant a long row to ferry passengers out to PocketShip.  They could've waded.

The new Wood Duck 14 made its OkoumeFest debut, here modeled by two kids.

 Lots more photos, plus the Best Kayak, Best Smallcraft, and Best in Show winners, are on       PAGE TWO of the OkoumeFest 2010 Recap.