What a day! Amidst a pandemic and cancelations of everything, The Toronto ACBS decided to make August 8, 2020 National Vintage Boating day. As Greg said: if you can have a National Prosecco day, we can make a vintage boating day. The date was set as this was supposed to be the day for the Muskoka Lakes Association boat show in Port Carling, and they were getting together for a boat parade to make up for the cancelation. We made it a national event! Many emails were sent out to organizations inviting them to participate in their area. We advertised the event through International ACBS and local newspapers promoted the event.
Fortunately, Mother Nature loves vintage boats and delivered a perfect day. Always a little anxiety when you try something new, you just never know if the boats will show up. We had many locations to meet, so that it was easy to attend. We had participation on Lake Muskoka, Lake Rosseau, Lake of Bays, Pigeon Lake, Gloucester Pool, Manotick ,and Smith Mountain Lake in the USA.
We were very happy to learn that we were all itching to gather with friends as the turnout was outstanding. I was on Lake Muskoka and I counted over 40 boats. We cruised, following a lead boat south along the east shore and in behind Tondern Island. Then we came back up through Millionaires row for about 1.5 hours. It was fun to get together. Today was a great way to be in our boats with the great boating friends we have made in a safe manner. Take that Covid!! A video of the event is here
