Les Cheneaux Boat Show Marks 30 Years This Weekend
By Amy Polk

The 30th Anniversary of the Les Cheneaux Antique Wooden Boat Show and Festival of Arts will sail into the islands Saturday, August 11, with related festivities starting Friday night, August 10, and ending Sunday, August 12. The Festival of Arts will feature at least 65 artists selling glass, pottery, paintings, jewelry, sculpture, hand-bound books, photographs, textiles, wood carvings, and wooden furniture. A complete schedule of events, with dates and times is on Page 6 and Page 7 of this issue.

As of Friday, August 3, 130 boats were registered for the show, said Sue Rye, one of the boat show volunteers in charge of registration, and more were coming in.

For 30 years, the Les Cheneaux boat show has set itself apart from other shows with its relaxed atmosphere, less attention to judging, and more emphasis on having fun. Founders Ken Horsburgh and Chuck Letts wanted to create a casual show-and-tell event for all the residents and cottagers of the area.

In that spirit, the event's "best of show award" was originally voted on by spectators. Over time, the award became the People's Choice, still giving spectators the opportunity to vote for their favorite boat. Best of Show is now selected by the judges, who use more discriminating criteria to reward the hard work that goes into restoring boats to near-original condition.

The People's Choice award has been named this year in memory of Jim Bohn, a longtime boat show worker, contributor, and participant. Mr. Bohn was 63 when he passed away last September. He was born and grew up in Berea, but spent nearly half of each year with his family in Cedarville. He married Nancy Robley in Cedarville, and they moved here in 1978 after a longtime career in teaching.

Mr. Bohn worked for Tassier Boat Works in Cedarville, and he and his wife owned and operated Cedarville Marine until he became the supervising manager at Flotation Docking Systems in Cedarville, a position he held until 1999. Mr. Bohn enjoyed boat building and restoration, and kept himself busy in the winter by building or restoring a different boat every year. Mr. Bohn enjoyed life and social activities in the Les Cheneaux Islands, and was known for his sense of fun and enthusiasm for boating and outdoor recreation. His brother-in-law, Rob Robley, has designed a new award featuring in the foreground a wooden launch Mr. Bohn built and named Cosmo after his wife's father. Two sailboats, a triple-cockpit runabout, and a profile of islands are in the background of the illustration. Each year's People's Choice winner will be engraved on another wooden trophy that will remain part of the permanent collection at the Les Cheneaux Maritime Museum.

This year a new style of award will be given to people who win the 16 class awards and other distinctions. The small wooden plaques given in previous years have been replaced with a wood-framed image of the year's boat show poster, overlaid with etched glass announcing the award, class, and year. The new awards will accompany new participation plaques bearing the poster design for all boats registered in the show. The awards were designed by artists John and Diana Grenier of UP North Studios in Hessel, who also made this year's boat show posters. Mrs. Grenier created the original painting of one of this year's featured boats, Boss, a 42- foot, 1921 Great Lakes Boat Building Corporation vessel designed for cruising parties and day trips. Janet Carrington of Cedarville and Florida owns the boat, fulfilling a lifelong dream of doing so, after seeing it when she was a child.

Another of this year's feature boats is Uandi, a 26-foot, 1926 Hacker Craft that won the 2006 show's two top prizes: Best of Show and People's Choice. The vessel's owner, Norman Betts of Ann Arbor, spent 10 years trying to bring the boat home after a 30-year absence from the Les Cheneaux Islands, where his in-laws, the Blain family, used her during summers at their cottage. Norman and Keeley Betts purchased the boat last year and brought it home, less than a week before the boat show, where it collected awards.

The third feature boat, Chief Waramaug, owned by Ted and Barbara Grulikowski of Brighton, is a 26-foot, 1927 Chris Craft Cadet. It was originally purchased in January 1927 by Stuart Augustus Mead of Greenwich, Connecticut, at the New York Motor Boat Show in New York City. He named the boat Chief Waramaug after a highly regarded American Indian chief in Connecticut, and the chief's hunting and fishing lands. The boat was rarely used after World War II, and it remained in Connecticut until 1979, when it came to the Les Cheneaux Islands. After Mr. Grulikowski bought and restored the boat, he took it home to Connecticut for a reunion with the residents of the lake where it was operated for many years.

This year's guest of honor is Christopher John Smith of Holland, grandson of Chris Craft boat company founder Christopher Columbus Smith.

Activities will start Friday night, August 10, with the boat show entrants' cocktail reception at the Les Cheneaux Maritime Museum in Cedarville. The event will be hosted from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. by the Les Cheneaux Chamber of Commerce.

Meanwhile, the Cedarville Trojans Athletics Booster Club will offer a fish sandwich supper and silent auction at the Mertaugh Storage Building in downtown Hessel from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event will raise money for school athletics, and the auction will continue through Saturday afternoon. The dinner and auction are open to the public.

Activities at the Saturday show will include performances by perennial favorites the Sault Swing Band, two Arnold Transit Company channel cruises at noon and 2:30 p.m., the Festival of Arts, concessions, and Dockside Traders. The Michigan Steerman's Group, which presented a bi-plane show last year, is planning another fly-over, boat show coordinators said. Katie Bowlby, a Cedarville High School senior, will sing the National Anthem this year at the 10 a.m. opening ceremonies. She will be joined by the Law-White Veterans of Foreign Wars and Ladies Auxiliary, and Les Cheneaux Girl Scouts in a flag-raising ceremony, before the show's guest of honor is introduced.

A Sunday brunch for boat show registrants and guests will be offered at the Les Cheneaux Yacht Club on Marquette Island at 10:30 a.m. People who plan to attend must register by Thursday, August 8, by calling Barb Smith at (906) 484-4081.

Registration and information is available at Les Cheneaux Historical Museum in Cedarville, by calling (906) 484-2821.

Admission to the show is $7 for adults and $3 for children ages 12 to 18 years. Children younger than 12 will be admitted free.