FL Boating Museum moves collection to H’port

he Finger Lakes Boating Museum has embarked on a new mission of increasing its presence throughout the Finger Lakes Region.Recently, the Boating Museum moved its collection of boats and artifacts from Geneva to a new and larger storage facility in Hammondsport.Also, the Museum’s Board of Directors has decided to hold its annual summer boating festival at the Museum’s Morehouse Center at the north end of Cayuga Lake State Park at the boat launch site. This historic location is where Morehouse boats were manufactured.The Boating Museum’s antique and classic boat collection was moved out of the Geneva Enterprise Development Center building on April 6 because the Board was given until March to either move the boats or pay monthly rent of $1,650. The museum was not paying any rent previously. The collection was moved to a new location in Hammondsport, with more than 40 volunteers assisted in transporting more than 80 boats and artifacts.”The Mercury Aircraft site in Hammondsport is nearly twice the size of that we had in Geneva with plenty of room to expand,” said Museum Vice President Ed Wightman. “We are most appreciative to Mercury Aircraft for making the facility available to us at no cost to the Finger Lakes Boating Museum.”The storage facility is located in Urbana at the south end of Keuka Lake.”Since the partnership with the City of Geneva ended,” Wightman added, “the Museum trustees have been receiving numerous offers of support from all around the Finger Lakes asking us to locate the museum in their area. A site selection committee is in the process of reviewing the requests.”The Boating Museum’s 2013 Boating Festival will take place in the historic Cayuga Lake Morehouse boat manufacturing building on Saturday and Sunday, July 13 and 14. The Festival will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 13, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 14. Admission is free.The Morehouse Center houses a display of Morehouse boats, boat construction and fabrication displays and memorabilia of Finger Lakes boating. Cayuga Lake State Park is at 2678 Lower Lake Road, Seneca Falls.Many of the Museum’s wooden rowboats, powerboats and canoes built in the Finger Lakes will be on display. Also, Museum members and others are invited to bring their Finger Lakes built boats for display. More than 40 wooden boat manufacturers have been identified in the Finger Lakes.Check the FLBM website at www.flbm.org for information on restoration workshops and other activities during the Festival.Contact Bill Smith 585-739-4728 to display a boat or for any other questions about the Festival.The Boating Museum has assembled a collection of more than 100 wooden boats built in the Finger Lakes over the past 100 years, as well as numerous related artifacts and extensive reference material. Education, restoration and preservation are the key elements of the museum’s mission.The boating museum is a 501c3 not-for-profit corporation and was chartered by the New York State Department of Education in 1997 to “research, document, preserve and share the boating history of the Finger Lakes region.”