Boating with Sunset Delight: TI: Clayton Antique Boat Museum

Friday 7/27/2018
No boat travel.

Before heading out for our major event of the day, we hung around the boat for a bit waiting for the area AGLCA Harbor Host, Dave, to stop by for a visit. After he arrived, Clark and he spent a good long time going over charts and places to see while in the area. He proved to be a wealth of information.

We headed out for the antique boat museum around 11:00 carrying our raincoats in preparation for the expected rain. As it turned out, we did not need them at all. We had no rain whatsoever. Instead we had a partly cloudy sky with lots of bright sunshine.

After arriving there, we bought our tickets but decided to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant before starting the tour. I know that once Clark gets involved in something it is nearly impossible to drag him away.

Lunch at the Wood Boat Brewery

Upon starting our tour, the first thing we found was the antique outboard motors display. Clark was in heaven. He found makes and models similar to ones he used as a child. He couldn't wait to explain some of the design differences to me.

Antique Outboard Motors Display

Outboard Motor Humor

1920 Caille Liberty

1920 Caille Liberty Motor (shaft)

Clark was very excited to see a British Seagull motor. He told me about its construction and ease of repair even out on the water due to the simplicity of its design.

1959 British Seagull
(Clark had a similar outboard growing up)

Side view of British Seagull

I certainly have never seen so many wooden boats in one place as I saw at this museum today. They had several buildings where we could view the different designs and types of antique boats.

Boats in the Main Building

Boats in the water in the boat house ...

Next, we saw the stone building where boats are restored.

At my urging, Clark climbed into one of the boats they had on the grounds. Too bad it was on dry land, he couldn't go very far!

Try one on for size
(no leg room!)

The next building we visited held the "small craft" antique vessels.

Canoes

The last building we toured contained the speed boats. Some of these boats travel at amazing speeds. The world record for speed is well over 300 miles per hour.

Design on Stern of one of the Speed Boats

We completed our boat tour around 2:15. After two hours of viewing boats, I thought we were done, but Clark decided he would like to buy the tickets to tour the boat La Duchesse that was originally built for the same person that built the castle we plan to see tomorrow - Boldt. We missed the 2:00 tour, so I enjoyed a nice rest on a bench for 30 minutes while we waited for the 3:00 tour.