Lake Tahoe Concours d'Elegance
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The Lake Tahoe Concours d'Elegance is an event held at Lake Tahoe yearly, and serves as one of the most prestigious judging events for classic wooden boats. The event, held over a two- to three-day span in August of every year (with the years 2009 and 2010 being exceptions, held in June), started in 1972 by wooden boat enthusiasts and experts of Lake Tahoe to judge boats much like in a car concours. Now officially hosted by the Tahoe Yacht Club, since 1994, the show has become a renowned event in the wooden boat world. Each year the show raises money for charitable donation, with $32,000 being donated in 2010, with total donations from 1994 to present have totaled over $200,000.[1]
The Lake Tahoe Concourse d'Elegance was started at the Tahoe City Marina in 1972, by wooden boat enthusiasts and owners seeking to create a judging and display spectacle for their boats. In 1994, the Tahoe Yacht Club (founded 1925) began hosting the show, and moved the event to Sierra Boat Company's marina in Carnelian Bay. Each year a painting by artist Roy Dryer III is made and used as the official poster of that year's show.
Events
The show is a centerpiece of the Wooden Boat Week at Lake Tahoe, which consists of the show itself, various barbecue events for yacht club members, and the Woodie-Over-The-Bottom race,[2] which is a multi-step race over an annually changing course that consists of completing multiple tasks at predetermined speeds; the week is finished with a celebration called Mahogany Magic, which showcases a slideshow of all the events that transpired over that week.
The show originally started on a Thursday, closed to the public, where the boats' engines would be run as the first step in the judging process. The show officially began on Friday, to VIP visitors, the day the judging would take place (although it would extend into Saturday). The show has many classes, for each marque of boat, as well as perpetual awards; a Marque Class was selected each year, as the predominant show theme, where boats from the specific class, ranging from Chris-Crafts to Boats of the 1920s. One the Saturday of the show, after all judging ends, the boats make a celebratory exit from the Sierra Boat Marina, as they head to the awards ceremony, or wherever the owners wish to go afterwards.
