This year’s 40^th Annual Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show & Festival of Arts was quite the success. 

A light early morning rain was followed by blue sky and warmer temperatures for a record number of entries and large crowds of wooden boat enthusiasts.  Each year this event, held the 2^nd Saturday in August, encompasses a wider variety of wooden beauties, from all over the nation as well as Canada.  Live music, including the opening ceremonies with the signing of the Star Spangle Banner, lend well to a mutual enjoyment, respect of these works of art and their owners as well as the gifted small business people that restore them to their original glory.  The Festival of Arts has equally talented artists, including mediums of clay, glass, metals, jewelry, textiles, painting & wood.

Breezing Thru, a 1930 Hacker Craft and its owner, Charles Letts, were the highlight of this year’s spectacular show. 

Mr. Letts has been coming to this area since a toddler and has been enjoying his summer residence on Coryell Island these past 87 years.   Rightfully so, this year’s boat show poster is a depiction of the Letts Family, their old woodie, Breezing Thru, and Scammons Harbor, where the numerous boathouses are filled with boats of our bygone era.  Mr. Letts, along with his old friend, Mr. Ken Horsburgh, their spouses and a handful of forward thinking residents started the local boat show in 1977 and it has only blossomed and continues to succeed.
If ever there is something that a fellow “Michiganian” should not miss, schedule an amazing experience for August, 2018:  It will not disappoint!