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A

yearly boat show in Oriental may be back on track, thanks to the success this weekend of the Oriental Boat Show at Pecan Grove Marina.

First boat sold at the show, was a LaserPerformance “Bug” (made by the folks who make Lasers and Sunfish), and sold locally by Paul Welles and the Triton Yachts crew. The Bug was out sailing through the marina much of the weekend.

Organizer Rob Lucey says there may have been as many as 2,000 visitors during the three day show. There were approximately 1300 paying attendees.

Two of the more traditional styles at the show. In foreground one of the electric boats by Budsin Boat Works in Marshallberg. In background, one of the two sails of the Periauger, the replica of the colonial-era sailing cargo ship .

Rob reports that many of the 76 vendors who took part this year are looking forward to another show in 2010.

A show next year would be “well-received,” he says, if certain elements fell together again, such as the surplus marina space that was available this spring at Pecan Grove. (Getting the same run of good weather would also help.) Rob says that he may be persuaded to organize a boat show next year if he could get some assistants to help out. He also suggests that the boat show could be a “great fundraising event if a local organization were to take it on.”

Jack Coulter of Deaton Yacht Sales in position on one of the boats Saturday.

Oriental did have boat shows for a few years in a row earlier this decade, but the event fell away until this year’s revival.

The 2009 Oriental Boat Show raised $9,000, Lucey says and those funds will be divided among local charities that have some marine orientation. (For a full listing of the charities see the last page of this story.)

More photos from the boat show follow …

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Posted Wednesday April 22, 2009 by Melinda Penkava

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