Bayou Teche Wooden Boat Show brings unique vessels

Wooden boat owners and enthusiasts will gather along historic and scenic Bayou Teche in downtown Franklin, Louisiana for the sixth Bayou Teche Wooden Boat Show starting today and through midday Sunday.
“It’s an idea that grew out of a breakfast table discussion at a local diner and has taken on a life of its own,” said co-organizer Roger Stouff. “We’re truly astounded at the growth and participation.”
While this year’s show would have been the seventh event, the 2015 show was cancelled because of severe weather.
The BTWBS has become one of the fastest-growing venues for wooden vessels both antique and modern in the Southeast, but has managed to remain a laid-back event held in conjunction with the Bayou Teche Black Bear Festival, both set along Parc sur la Teche in Franklin.
Past shows have featured hand-crafted Cajun skiffs and bateaus of cypress, wooden sailboats, classic Chris Craft, Garwood, Correct Craft, Lyman and Thompson runabouts, cypress pirogues and dugouts as well as many other varieties of boats from various regions of the United States and abroad. “It’s astounding to see the variety,” Stouff said. “It really makes you realize how much the history of much of the world has been molded by vessels made of wood, far longer than boats and ship have been constructed of any other material.”
The show begins Friday evening and continues through Sunday.
Bayou Teche has recently been named an America’s Scenic Byway and part of the National Park Service Water Trails System.
Visit the BTWBS website at www.techeboatshow.com.