Boating season is making a splash at the Vernon Yacht Club with the 2016 Boat & Leisure Show.
The event features all-ages activities on and off the water Saturday, April 30 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Parking and free Kal Tire shuttle is available from Marshall Field to the club every 10 minutes from 8 a.m. to close. Admission is free but those attending are asked to bring a non-perishable food item for the Salvation Army food bank.
The weekend will be filled with fun sailboat rides and North Okanagan Sailing Association (NOSA) dinghy games, remote control boats, face-painting by Tanya Lipscomb the Pirate, demos of the Nakusp Secondary School’s famous Tri-Flasher Fishing lures and flint fire demos, a NASA presentation on rockets and hydrofoil watercraft Saturday at 11 a.m., Jillian Harris and Scrub Captain, a children’s drawing competition and prize and Canada’s fastest boat, the McLennan F1, demos.
One of Canada’s top outboard racers, Mike McLellan, from Kelowna, is bringing the Autoplace Formula 1 Racing Team back to the Vernon Boat Show for 2016. For this year’s show the Autoplace F1 team is bringing plenty of race fuel, and two boats.
“The second hull is actually a Formula2 set up. This is the hull we took to Seattle last year after I crashed the primary at a demo event last July in Port Alberni,” said Mike McLellan from the Autoplace F1 race shop in Kelowna. “The F2 boat is no slouch though, it still holds two world records.”
Rookie Andrew Forbes, who also hails from Kelowna, will join the action.
Both drivers will put their race craft through their paces in the water on both days of the show. Fans will be able to get up close to the race boats on shore as the entire Autoplace Race team will be on hand to answer questions, sign autographs for show visitors when the boats aren’t on the water.