TOPIC: 1940 boat show?

I scored a bunch of old literature my dad must have picked up at the 1940 boat show.

Thompson

Kayak, which appear to be kits.

Penn Yan

Old Town

Now, I will, at some point scan these and post the whole things. That may be weeks or months, hopefully not years. IF......you own a boat you think may be contained in these brochures, PM me and I will try to send you a scan of the page with your boat on it.

In addition to these professional brochures from larger manufactures there are a handful of ditto machine made copies from some more shoestring budget types of outfits.

Fun stuff.

What a great stash, and some real collectible brochures as well (to the wood boat/canoe crowd). These boat show take-home stashes are really neat since it's a snapshot of the artwork and industry at the time.

I'm sure we all are looking forward to seeing more of the collection.

The biggest "tell" is that both Thompson and Penn Yan have a sailboat on their cover. I know my dad tells how he dreamed of having a power runabout. Watching the inboards go by and thinking he would never be able to own one. In 1940, the outboard era was still rather undeveloped and inboards were expensive.

How things change. I was a member of the Whitefish Chain Yacht Club for years. More low key social than high brow, but we used to muster 60 sail boats in 7 classes for up to 6 regattas each summer. Now we can't get 5 boats of any kind to show up for a race. "Personal" watercraft like sailboards and water scooters have ruined yachhmanship. (perhaps forever)

Thompson Boat brochures and her various spin-offs have been scanned and are availble on a CD-ROM. Same for Old Town and Penn Yan.

The Thompson and Old Town CDs can be obtained at www.wcha.org

I cannot recall where I obtained the Penn Yan brochures on CD.

So, you may want to see what has already been scanned prior to doing any work, so that you are not repeating something someone else has done in the past.

Andreas