Friends Scott and Annemarie took us to Tavares in central Florida for the Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival this weekend. Tavares is near picturesque (and touristy) Mt. Dora on Lake Dora, which is one of several freshwater lakes in the area that are connected by canals and locks. You could actually get to the St. John's River from this lake. Tavares is also known as 'America's Seaplane City', which made the trip even more interesting, with planes lining the shore and taking flight. The show itself was spread out on both land and water, and this is the first time in two years that they have held this event, due to the Covid pandemic. What a pretty setting and we enjoyed seeing different boats and engines. There were even a few beautiful Gar Wood wooden boats there from Brant Lake in the Adirondacks. Below are a few of the more novel boats, engines, and oddities that we saw.
The first boat we came upon was this race boat from 1930, but it had modern power of 908 cubic inches in the form of tandem 454s.
It was being towed by this really cool restomod crew cab woody wagon.
Below is a stunning Aristo Craft 14 with a 1959 period diner interior. Note where the steering console is. It was powered by a 6 cylinder, direct reversing Mercury Mark 75. There was no neutral on this boat.
Then there was the 'Field of Dreams' which had project boats for sale. Many were difficult to identify from butchering through the years, but fun none the less.
What a cute little half scale electric launch...
Look at this outstanding line up of Mercury Super 10 Hurricane outboard motors from the early 1950s.
They call these early in-line 6 Mercurys the 'tower of power'. They were the first outboards to break 100 HP in 1966.
This Aristo Craft with a matching Mercury Mark 40 outboard made us wonder if we should put one on our bucket list.
This is yet another Aristo Craft with a double cockpit from around 1956, the year Dave was born.
This novelty is a power ski unit. There is a 24 hp Wankel engine in the forward pod, which is steered by the handlebars that the skier controls. It looks like something Dave would have made. 😉
I don't think we ever found out what this strange boat was, but it certainly had big fins on the bow and stern! It was styled very similar to a 1959 Chevy.
We watched as this Packard came and docked. It was made by the same company as the Packard cars.
This Feather Craft and matching Mercury Mark 400 outboard were pristine! The mirror finish immediately drew us to the boat, as we have been eying a similar one up in the Northeast. It is a 16ft. Ranger 2 and definitely had the bling factor we like. Another bucket list boat perhaps?
This is a custom made, one of a kind Aristo Craft Sedan Cruiser...
They took a late model Yamaha F150 outboard and dressed it up as a period 1960 Johnson 75.
These boats are amazing! The 21 ft. Chris Craft Cobra had a spectacular dorsal fin. There were two of them at the show, with one powered by a Chrysler Marine Hemi and the other had a Cadillac V-8.
What a fun day with good friends. It certainly was a great event to get our imaginations in high gear.
😎
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