About two dozen wooden boats bobbed with the waves at the Oakwood Resort piers and another 10 or so were proudly displayed on resort grounds during the Saturday, June 24, Lake Wawasee “classic boat gathering.”
“It’s really more like a rally than a boat show,” said Jeanne Knecht, who with her husband, Luke, helped enlist the boat owners and spread the word about the event, which ran from 10 a.m to 5 p.m.
“There are no awards and no judging,” said Luke. “It’s just a gathering of people who like wooden boats.”
The attendance was “pretty decent,” according to Jeff Guyas, second-generation owner of Wawasee Slip, formerly Macy’s Marina. Guyas has worked on many of the “80 or so” wooden boats housed on Lake Wawasee.
The event evolved from the Sunday morning Thunder Run, launched in 2013 by local boat owner Bill Coon and Guyas.
“Nobody wanted to go out and use their wooden boats very often,” said Coon. “So we came up with an event where they would actually use them.”
The Thunder Run commences at 10 a.m. every Sunday between the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, “and another month or so for those of us who stay on,” said Jeanne.
The circuit around Lake Wawasee takes about 35 minutes; the pace is held at 2,000 rpm. “Not too many of the boats have speedometers,” said Coon.
Jeanne took “a lot” of photos each week, opened a Facebook page, “Wawasee Wooden Boats,” and posted the pictures with commentary.
“The page has over 800 likes,” she said.
“We’ve gotten comments from Europe, Japan, South America, all over the world,” said Luke.
Saturday’s gathering was an outgrowth of the Thunder Run, coupled with local and regional interest in wooden boats.
“On a couple of occasions in the last 15 years, the Antique and Classic Boat Society” — a national organization based in New York — “put on a boat show on Lake Wawasee,” said Luke. “This year we decided to get together with some local boat owners and said, ‘Why don’t we do a get-together?’ People off the lake also asked to attend.”
Sitting at a dockside table outside the Oakwood restaurant and basking in the success of the event and fellowship of like-minded devotees, the organizers agreed to plan an encore next year.
“Oakwood was very helpful,” he said, “and we thank them for the use of their pier space and grounds.”
This year’s scheduling was serendipitous. “We didn’t plan this to coincide with the Wawasee Property Owners Association breakfast” attended by about 300 people, “but next year maybe we’ll coordinate that,” said Luke.
The organizing committee didn’t stop with the rally. Beginning this weekend, wooden boat owners will offer Oakwood Resort guests rides around the lake for a charitable contribution of $25.
The donations will go to designated local charities, such as Teen Parents Succeeding, as determined by the boat owner.