I recently judged my first ACBS show. It was an honor to be selected to judge. I joined a team of two other experienced judges. Our team was assigned to judge the outboard boats, both wood and non-wood. We were given the basic judging criteria: all boats are to be judged against their condition when they originally left the factory, and all boats start out as 100 point boats with deductions made where appropriate.

We were assigned to judge 7 boats all together, with two no-shows because of the weather. Point sheets were different for the wood and non-wood, with the main differences being in the judging of the motors and the finishes. No detailed instructions were given as to what deductions should be made for differences in finish from original, but there were automatic deductions for differences in the motors from original. After doing some research online, I did find some documents that called out for certain deductions for certain finishes, but these were not made available to us for use in judging the boats. Most of the deductions that we took were common sense things and we followed the judging check list to keep track of them all.

 

THE ANTIQUE & CLASSIC BOAT SOCIETY, INC.

PRESS RELEASE

The Board of Directors of The Antique & Classic Boat Society (ACBS) announced today that it has approved a change in its boat classification structure and show eligibility criteria to include certain boats of a more recent vintage under the definition of classic boats. According to Teresa Hoffman, President of ACBS, “The classic boating hobby has evolved and changed considerably since the ACBS last changed these parameters in 2002”. In keeping with the original vision of the founders of ACBS, many boats constructed between 1975 and the year 25 years prior to the current year will be considered as “late-classic”. This new designation applies to both wood and non-wood boats. The new category excludes boats of a certain hull type such as pontoons, inflatables and small personal watercraft.

  
What a challenge we had at the 2012 Priest Lake, Idaho Glassic Boat Show. Northern Idaho has lots of mountain storms throughout the spring and summer but once every few years we experience a phenomenon known as a micro burst. This is what happened Friday night before the show.  The winds it created reached 90 mph (that’s hurricane force), took down thousands of trees, crushed numerous cabins, and tragically took two lives in its path. Our deepest sympathies go out to those families.
Then there is the story of Earl Ruddach who came all the way from Idaho Falls  (about 600 miles away)  to enter his boat in the show and have some fun with a bunch of glass heads that he had never met.  Earl was caught in the path of the storm and his truck was hit by a falling tree. I can only imagine the nightmare he must have gone through Friday night.  Earl told me he was sure his boat would have taken Best of Show.  Nice try Earl…
We want to especially thank our hosts, Ed and Tammy owners of the Priest Lake Marina for their help and support. Ed’s BBQ  burgers and salads an the Beach Bar & Grill  were the best.
Despite all this, the show went on. We were fully expecting 25 to 30 boats, but considering the storm, a showing of 13 fabulous boats offered the public a small glimpse of some real classics.
We had two boats come over from Montana – a ’59 Skagit owned by Dan Ward and his beautiful girlfriend Miss Kitty and a beautifully restored ’67 Lee Craft owned by a great guy Lynn Holland and sporting a cool rope style steering wheel.
 

            
Don and Jami Stuart brought their newly acquired ’58 Reinell. (above) Amazing one of a kind boat. Sliding sun roof and a Porsche air cooled engine.  Wow !!!!