Geneva Lakes Boat Show
This year’s cruise and house tour will visit three amazing estates on Geneva Lake, each with truly remarkable features. Transportation will be provided aboard three of the more interesting boats on the lake. The boats will be SEA LARK, POLARIS, and the Henry Knox. Lunch at the Lake Geneva Country Club is included. Tours will depart from the Lake Geneva Yacht Club. Tour time is approximately 4:45 minutes.
Founded in 1874, the Lake Geneva Yacht Club is one of the oldest and most internationally renowned of the ILYA Clubs and is the site of numerous international and National Sailing competitions. Additionally, the LGYC is the home of Olympic Medalist and World Champion sailboat racers.
This year’s Friday evening reception will be at the new home of Dana and Patty Mecum located on South Lake Shore Drive in Fontana, just west of the Yacht Club. The estate is absolutely amazing, 33,000 sq. ft with several accessory buildings and landscaped terraces overlooking the lake. The main building has accommodations for Dana and his wife Patty, plus accommodations for parents and grandchildren, with an additional private area for the estate manager and family. The house has individual garages for ten automobiles – and these are not simply automobiles. These are special cars from Dana’s personal collection: Mercedes, Maybachs, Bugatties, and numerous others - the cream of the crop. There is an accessory building with another ten garages , which has a catering kitchen and stainless steel swimming pool on the roof. There is a building by the entrance in the shape of an old time gas station and, next to the pier, another summer house. The veranda overlooking the lake has a Bugatti carrousel.
Curators of Dana’s collection will be available to answer questions about the cars, and Dana will present a short program talking about his vision for the estate and the collection.
With all this going on, there is not room for guest’s cars at the estate or room for boats at his pier, so we will provide shuttle busses from the Abbey Marina for rapid transportation to the estate.
This is a premier event, spectacular in every sense! Space is limited so get your reservations in early! You won’t have another chance to see this remarkable estate.
Boats will be on exhibit all day Saturday, beginning at 10:00 am. Be sure you have your boat in the water by then, as we expect a lot of spectators. Local vendors will have items on display, and the Blackhawk Chapter’s tent will once again offer t-shirts, posters and other items. The annual “starting of the engines” and boat parade will commence at 4:00 pm.
The awards will be presented on Sunday at 2:00pm. In an effort to honor the winners of the award categories, and recognize the owners, you must register for the Saturday dinner and be in attendance in order to be qualified to win one of the show awards. Award categories:
Sunday, boats will be on exhibit again at 10 am. People’s Choice award and drawing winners announced at Blackhawk tent at 2 pm. Each year we have many spectators who attend the boat show on Sunday afternoon expecting to see the full line-up of boats on display. Therefore, participants are asked to leave their boats in the water (and land displays intact) on Sunday until 3:00 pm when the boat show officially ends.