Fly-By

The Antique Boat Museum in Clayton held a great event called 'The Need for Speed' on Saturday. This not only included antique and classic boats, but also cars and motorcycles. These motorcycles greeted us when we walked in the front door of the museum. The one in the foreground is a Henderson 4 Full Body and an Indian 4 behind it, both mid-1930s.

These Hendersons were outside on the property, along with a few cars and lots of boats on both land and in the water.

The main event was the fly-by of some of the boats as they rounded a closed course in the bay.

This GarWood with builder Larry Turcotte driving, did a spinney right in front of us!

The last boat was the ABM's 'Pardon Me' that is 48 feet long. This is touted as the world's largest mahogany runabout. It was built in Alexandria Bay by Hutchinson Boat Works in 1948.

This engine is the same as what is in 'Pardon Me'. It is a super charged Packard V-12 surplus aircraft engine. The displacement is 2500 cubic inches and it is rated at 1500 HP. It burns up to 110 gallons of aviation fuel per hour at full throttle.

We were hoping this ship would fly by too but alas, it stayed in the channel. 😉

There was also a memorial fly-by of WW2 planes to honor one of the museum's trustees that had recently died. He also belonged to the 'Tora Tora Tora' plane group that put on the air show. What a fitting tribute!  

Walking around the grounds is always a treat to see what is being displayed on both land and in the water. 

Count all those cylinders!

We also took a tour of the nearby ABM's Doebler Storage Facility, which is packed with donated boats, engines, and parts. Dave checked out all the outboards that lined the length of an entire wall of the warehouse. Meanwhile I was drawn to the bling of all the varnished boats. 

On the left in the background, you can see the chain lift that they use to move the boats around. It needs to be very skinny to maneuver around all the closely placed boats. It must take a bunch of manpower to safely lift and guide everything, especially the longer boats.

Before we said good-bye to the St. Lawrence Seaway, we ate a combination lunch and dinner at our favorite pizza place in Clayton overlooking the river. This final ship passing bid us a fond farewell...until next time!