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Richard Bush rows the dory he built at the 2017 Great New York State Fair. In 2018, the winner of the `Name That Boat` contest at the fair will win the dory. (Photo: New York Sea Grant)
Richard Bush rows the dory he built at the 2017 Great New York State Fair. In 2018, the winner of the "Name That Boat" contest at the fair will win the dory. (Photo: New York Sea Grant)

'Name That Boat' contest winner at NYS State Fair gets that boat

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Tue, Aug 14th 2018 03:20 pm
The Great New York State Fair visitors who submits the best name for the dory built at the event last year will win it. Those who submit "Name That Boat" entries at the new "Path Through Maritime History: NY Lighthouses and Lifesaving" exhibit will also have the opportunity to win a daily prize of a family pass to the H. Lee White Maritime Museum at Oswego.
The State Fair runs from Aug. 22 through Labor Day, Sept. 3.
Fairgoers will find contest rules and can submit entries at the lighthouses exhibit developed by New York Sea Grant and sponsored by the Central New York Boating Industries Association, Central New York Boat Show, Great Lakes Seaway Trail National Scenic Byway, and Great New York State Fair.
A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat with a flat bottom. A 9-foot-long dory was built by Richard Bush at the NY Maritime Heritage Exhibit and launched on Labor Day at the 2017 Great New York State Fair.
At this year's fair, Bush will construct a 12-foot-long strip-built kayak and talk about his techniques with visitors daily from 11 a.m. to noon and 1-2 and 3-4 p.m. at the "Lighthouses and Lifesaving" exhibit.
Bush has been teaching basic boat building to families at the H. Lee White Maritime Museum for the past 13 summers. His first experience with building a boat at the State Fair was last year. He built the dory and a stitch-and-glue kayak.
"Some Fair visitors came back several days to watch the process. They were intrigued by the techniques used and that someone could actually use their hands and, in less than 15 hours, have a useable boat," said Bush, an associate professor in the department of technology at the State University of New York at Oswego.
The winner of the "Name That Boat" contest will be selected from the 12 daily winners and announced at 10:30 a.m. on Labor Day when the kayak built this year is launched into the State Fair pond.
In addition to the boat-building demonstrations and dory naming contest, the "Path Through Maritime History: Lighthouses and Lifesaving" exhibit includes an interactive kiosk with information on the more than 70 existing lighthouses in New York; female lighthouse keepers, and the technology of lighthouses; and maritime artifacts associated with the lighthouse and lifesaving service.
Activities at the exhibit include a real-time fish-cam broadcast and the daily 2-4 p.m. opportunity for fair visitors to try operating an underwater remotely operated vehicle used by the Great Lakes Research Consortium for freshwater coastal research.
For ticket information, map and more details about the 2018 Great New York State Fair, visit nysfair.ny.gov. For more details on New York Sea Grant's maritime history programming, visit www.nyseagrant.org/davewhite.

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