Georgetown, October 14-16  |  Free Admission  —  This year's October Calendar of Events is brought to you by Georgetown's 27th Annual Wooden Boat Show, a waterfront event that offers fun for the entire family. The 2015 celebration will feature one of the nation's best wooden boat exhibits with more than 125 classic wooden boats displayed on land and water, a wooden boatbuilding competition, children's model boatbuilding, knot tying, maritime art and crafts, food, and music. A special attraction will be Saturday's Wooden Boat Challenge when teams of two race to build a rowing skiff within a four-hour time limit and then test their boats for seaworthiness in an exciting rowing relay on the Sampit River. The Georgetown Wooden Boat Show is regularly selected by the Southeast Tourism Society as a Top 20 Event for October.

Each autumn for the nearly three decades, Georgetown has honored her long maritime history with the Wooden Boat Show, one of our nation's most celebrated nautical gatherings. The event features a boat-building competition and race, tours, pirates, crafts, live music, a beer garden, and of course, plenty of delicious food. The Wooden Boat Show is held along the beautiful Georgetown waterfront and historic Front Street. Sponsored by the Harbor Historical Association, all proceeds benefit the South Carolina Maritime Museum, home to the prized Fresnel lens that once illuminated the old Georgetown Lighthouse. Below we take a detailed look at all three days of the event.

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Friday, October 14, 2015 at 6:30 PM: The 6th Annual Goat Island Yacht Club Regatta, held on Friday night before the Wooden Boat Show, features live and silent auction items donated by Lowcountry artisans and merchants, as well as first-class wardroom cuisine and imbibements. You won't want to miss this opportunity to meet and trade stories with fellow seafarers. Call 843-520-0111 for details, and please note that this is the only part of the Wooden Boat Show that is not free. Tickets cost $85 per person.

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Saturday, October 15, 2015 from 11 AM until 6 PM: More than 125 classic wooden boats will be displayed in the water and along Front Street. Vessels ranging in size from kayaks to cruising yachts will be exhibited in categories including row, canoe, kayak, surfboard, sail, model boats, inboard power, outboard power, owner-designed, century class (100 years or older), and "classic" categories for boats that are 50 years or older.

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Visitors will be able to meet and talk to wooden boat craftsmen, manufacturers, and owners. Maritime art and crafts will also be on display. The Wooden Boat Challenge will begin at noon under the big tent on Broad Street. Two-person teams will race to build a rowing skiff within a four-hour time limit. At 5 PM, the competitors will test their completed skiffs for seaworthiness in a rowing relay across the Sampit River. The teams will be scored on speed of construction, quality of work and rowing speed. Cash prizes will be awarded to first, second, and third place winners. At 7 PM, an awards ceremony and banquet will be held for boat exhibitors, boatbuilding competitors, sponsors, and guests. Prizes will be presented to the winners in each of the exhibit categories as well as to the "People's Choice Grand Award" winner and the "Six Knot Challenge" winner.

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Sunday, October 16, from 11 AM until 4 PM: In addition to the wooden boat and commercial exhibits, family activities will include knot tying with Dan the Knot Man, face painting, kite building, and puppetry. A new event for Sunday will be the first-annual Cardboard Boat Regatta. Visitors can preview the cardboard boats from 10 AM until 12:30 PM under the big tent on Broad Street. The Regatta will begin at 1:30 PM when the cardboard boats are launched on the Sampit River from the floating docks at Francis Marion Park. The Pride of the Fleet Award will be given to the boat that best combines innovative engineering with artistic design, while the Team Pride Award will go to the team with the greatest spirit and crowd involvement. The Titanic Award will be presented to the boat with the most dramatic sinking.

( SC Maritime Museum © Do Not Use Without Written Consent )

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