This Father’s Day weekend, San Diego families will be boarding classic wooden boats, touring the Shelter Island yacht basin by steamboat and soaking up seminars during the 17th annual San Diego Wooden Boat Festival.
Slated for June 16 and 17, the festival will feature sail-making and knot-tying classes and handcrafted boat displays to educate residents of San Diego’s seaside communities about boating and wooden-boat maintenance.
The festival is run by the Koehler Kraft Boatyard, which specializes in wooden boat repairs, and will showcase a variety of classic sailboats and powerboats, many of which are owned by the boatyard’s clients, according to Garry Cihak, general manager of the Koehler Kraft Boatyard.
However, the Wooden Boat Festival is different from standard boat shows, Cihak said, because “it isn’t designed to sell boats “¦ it’s a gathering for people who love boats to get together and share ideas.”
As a result, festival attendees range from casual observers to lifelong wooden boat enthusiasts, he said.
Boating enthusiast Scott Demere says the community spirit he shares with other wooden boat owners draws him to the festival each year.
According to Demere, Koehler Kraft is one of the few boatyards in Southern California to repair wooden boats, making the already tight wooden-boat community even more cohesive.
“We’re sort of a different breed,” Demere said, because wooden boats are made by hand in a traditional fashion, as opposed to molded Fiberglas. He added that with wood, “you have a unique connection that brings the boat to life “¦ Wooden boats have a soul.”
Demere will be displaying his 55-foot. yawl, or two-masted sailboat, that has been in his family since 1951. The boat is over 56 years old, but some of the 50 to 60 boats expected to be at the festival will be even older, Demere said.
For those wanting to learn more about the technicalities of boating, Cihak points to the seminars as “the best part” of the festival, allowing him and other devotees to give lessons and advice.
At the seminars, children and adults will learn nautical skills and practical sailing terminology. A children’s tent will provide lessons in ice cream-makin and sailboat construction, Cihak added.
The Wooden Boat Festival runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday at the Koehler Kraft Boatyard, 2302 Shelter Island Drive.
Admission to the festival is $5 for adults and free for children, and includes all seminars and boat rides. All proceeds will benefit Challenged America, a rehabilitation program that provides sailing opportunities for disabled adults and children.