Hanging Out at the Wooden Boat Show in Biloxi
Spent the weekend covering the Wooden Boat Show in Biloxi.
Great stuff.
Besides the 1930s era 59-foot Zoric/Mystic shown in this weeks Warship Weds. Here are a few more.
Charles Penny of LaComb LA cutting a rug in his 1949 18-foot long Davis Power Runabout
The 48-foot terapin schooner Redwing, made by Allen Miller of Ocean Springs of Red Cedar.
The Bill Holland built 65-foot Biloxi schooner Glenn L Swetman, owned and operated by the Maritime Seafood Industry Museum since 1989.
The 1936 50-foot lugger Tamora. Now based in the Kiln Mississippi and owned by Robert and Gerri Gros, the Tamora was built by Wheeler Yachts in Brooklyn. The Wheeler Yacht Company was founded at the turn of the 19th century by Howard E. Wheeler, in Brooklyn NY. During WWI, like other yacht builders, the yard built sub chasers. When WWII came, the Brooklyn yard, which was at the foot of Cropsey Avenue, in Coney Island, was dedicated first to minesweepers and then to an astonishing series of 230 patrol craft for the Coast Guard. You can see the very similar patrolboat/cabin cruiser lines in this inter-war built yacht. Odds are she probably served in the USCGR during WWII but can not be verified.
If you grew up reading author John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee books, you’ll likely remember that McGee’s neighbor in the Bahia Mar Marina was the Alabama Tiger, a retired football player who had a “permanent floating houseparty” aboard his custom Wheeler yacht.
Hello. I used to own the schooner ‘Redwing’ and brought it to the northern Gulf Coast from Key West, where it was designed and built. Allen Miller did indeed build ‘Redwing’, but he isn’t the present owner. And she is not built of red cedar. The boat is owned now by the Mississippi Coast Heritage Trust, or something like that, and is based in Ocean Springs. She carries a jib, a crazy bat-winged foresail, and a big gaffed main and goes like a scalded dog in just about any breeze. All in all a very cool little boat.