Tomahawk Antique Outboard Nationals 2019

Not very many may be interested in this but for some there may be an interest in the heritage of outboarding. For those....enjoy.

Lesa and I travelled up to Tomahawk Wisconsin at the end of July for the annual Tomahawk Super meet. Meet is a huge swap meet and show for antique outboards and boats.

Lesa picked up this nice completely original 1957 Johnson 3hp. The best example I have ever seen!



She also picked up a 1968 British Seagull Featherweight. A 1.25hp Seagull. We got that running in about a half hour and here she is running it in the Wisconsin River.

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I picked up a nice 1920 Evinrude RowBoat Motor. This engine came complete with the optional tilt mechanism. Pretty rare.

Looks like you both had a good time!



John

Awesome photos! I grew up with a 3 hp Johnson just like that ... and would give anything to have one like it again. What’s a ballpark for such an OB?

One of the nicest engines we saw there was a Waterwitch. This one has the infamous "Mae West" fuel tanks on the top. A perfect engine done in a high polish by a guy that knows what he is doing.
This one was being sold for $2500.00. Well out of my league.

By the way. The 3hp engine was so nice we decided to put it in the show. The engine won best "Original Unrestored" category and there was plenty of competition in that category.

To give you an idea of just how big this swap meet part is here is a photo of the set up day. Keep in mind this is a retired runway!
Vendors lined up on both sides and more coming in every few minutes. There was so much coming in that you had to make another round every couple hours to see if there was something there that you were after.

I pretty sure saw your motor in the show and I was amazed at how nice it was. I was there Friday afternoon and a good chunk of the vendors were packing up already. :x I guess that's one way to keep more money in my pocket. What's the best day to hit the show? Wednesday afternoon? This and last years shows didn't seem as big to me as they were years ago.

There were certainly some deals to be had when I was there. Lots of free and cheap motors and parts. I should have stopped by and said hi. I saw you guys working on your knuckle buster you took on the river in the campground. I'll definitely have to check it out earlier in the week next year. The only thing I'm really after are a few parts for my QD-10 or a whole parts motor in decent shape. It's funny that I see the same QD-10s for sale there year after year.

One thing I did always look forward to was what kind of oddball boat Bill from Illinois would bring to the show, but I don't recall seeing anything from him the last two years.

Here's a link to some pics I took of the 2015 show, and a few pics from 2012.

I did really like this Feathercraft someone had on their trailer. I thought it was a really unique shape.

Nice, thanks for sharing, I like looking at the old stuff.

That's a really cool thing to go see. I liked the pics of some of those old engines. Neat part of boating history...