Nearly 60 wooden vessels, boats of all shapes and sizes, will be on display this weekend for the annual Billy Creel Memorial Wooden & Classic Boat Show.
The affair takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Schooner Pier Complex, which is on U.S. 90 in east Biloxi, south of Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art. Hours are Satruday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admssion is $5 for adults, $3 for those ages 13-18, and children under 12, free.
“We have seven or eight wooden yachts that will be new to the show this year, and slew of boats from Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and, of course, Mississippi,” said Robin David, director of the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum and organizer of the boat show.
“All of the slips at the schooner pier are full,” she added, “and we’ll have an array of boats of trailers for people to see and admire.”
Visitors also will be able to sail aboard the 68’ two-masted Biloxi schooners “Glenn L. Swetman” and “Mike Sekul” Saturday and Sunday every hour beginning at 11 a.m.,with a final sail departing at 4 p.m. Rate is $15 per person; children under 4,  free.
Registered boats range from 6 feet to 76 feet. They include a 1928 Elco, a 1930 American Car & Foundry yacht, a 40-foot steam launch and a 1939 Covacevich-built 56-foot Biloxi Lugger/Chandeleur. Boats of present-day construction also will be in display. Â Visitors also will be able to tour the “Pan American Clipper,” a 1937 65-foot Biloxi Lugger/Excursion boat built by John Toche Sr.
More than 20 exhibitors will offer model boats, T-shirts, art work, pottery, stained glass boat models and other nautical items.
Food booths will offer fresh fried fish and shrimp plates, hamburgers, hot dogs, shrimp jambalaya, refreshment booths.
Singer-guitarist Hank Berumen will entertain Saturday and Sunday, beginning at noon. An adult’s cast net throwing contest will be Saturday at 1 p.m. and the children’s cast net throwing contest at 2 p.m. with prizes awarded.
Sponsors of the boat show are Rex Distributing Co. BancorpSouth, City of Biloxi, The Peoples Bank, Community Bank, Palace Casino Resort,  Golden Nugget Casino,  Hancock Bank, Butch Oustalet, Yates and Son Construction, IP Casino, Beau Rivage and Boomtown Casino.
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