The Complete and Unabridged History of the National Woodie Club Annual Meet

Sophomore Jinx Struggles…..2018

For 2018 your president and your board put on a joint meet with the granddaddy of all Woodie shows, San Diego Woodies’ Wavecrest in Encinitas. Again, the meet was held the same weekend as the board meeting, September 22, 2018. It was difficult, at best, to put on a combined meet, but, with special thanks to SDW members Jim Esposito and Rocky Brown as well as the Western Directors, Wayne Yada, Dan Close and Ron Dugger, your club succeeded. The most important thing with woodies is to have fun.

Do-over 2021

Literally everything had to be re-booted so that the fourth annual meet could take place in year five, that being 2021. Despite the misadventures of the entire planet, your club, and in particular Central Director Jeff Krickhahn at the helm and first mates Scott Gilday and Jeff Hobgood, held the fourth annual meet on September 24-26, 2021, at Lake Delavan, near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. A full weekend of activities worthy of another successful annual 3-day meet was enjoyed by all in attendance.

At the evening banquet, we toasted and roasted our long time out-going editor John Lee. Unfortunately our new editor, Roddy Sergiades could not attend from Canada due to Covid restrictions. At the conclusion of the meal, mother nature offered a spectacular sunset - the perfect end to a successful meet.

As a club we think we are getting pretty good at this.

Mystic, Conn 2023

The 6th Annual National Woodie Club Meet was held in July in conjunction with the 5th Annual Woodies at the Seaport Meet in Mystic, Conn. at Mystic Seaport Museum. Participants came from 18 states. The meet was hosted by the Yankee Wood Chapter (YWC), and uncounted volunteers. On Friday about 35 woodies rolled across the iconic Mystic drawbridge and through main street Mystic on our way to the seaside village of Noank, Groton Long Point, Avery Point Campus of University of Connecticut, near the mouth of the Thames River. The tour stopped at the Branford House mansion as well as the Submarine Museum and boarded the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, and the first submarine to go under the North Pole. The return route took us to Stonington Village, and on to Stonington Vineyards for their Friday evening for an enjoyable evening of wine, food and music.

After several days of rain and even some flooding, the skies were blue again, for show day with gentle breezes promised a comfortable day at Mystic Seaport Museum. A formal flag ceremony for the new class of Coast Guard Academy cadets marched by, adjacent to the show field. There was a very good turnout of visitors who came to see the woodies, as well as the antique and classic boats in the water. The NWC and YWC information and merchandise tables were busy all day, including the first issues of new merchandise with the NWC logo. At the end of the show the woodies paraded as a group off the green, by the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship.

That evening the woodie faithful gathered at the Elmridge Golf Course clubhouse for the dinner - we enjoyed an Italian buffet and a cake decorated in honor of our 6th Annual National Meet. the club auctioned two meet banners donated by Jay Butterfield, a painting of “Woodies at the Seaport” created and donated by Tina Lyman, and a beautiful quilt made and donated by Vicki Bauerie. Steve Smith’s winning ticket for the 50/50 raffle was donated to back to the YWC and NWC. Beautiful wooden plaques of the new Club logo were presented to the show winners.

Sunday the remaining cars cruised to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London and had a drive-through tour of the campus as well as Fort Trumbull on the banks of the Thames River. Back at the Mystic Hilton, the Annual NWC Board meeting got underway and Bill Quick assumed the duties of President and co-chaired the meeting.

With much planning and help from Mother Nature, the 2023 NWC Meet was a great success.