COEUR d'ALENE - It's hard to explain.

Some call it charm, others say it's the character.

It's just the look and feel that makes a wooden boat so special. No knock on the fiberglass ones, but vintage is vintage, no matter how difficult it can be to describe.

"I love boats, all kinds of boats," said Candace Godwin, who is entering her 37-foot wooden boat Chesapeake with her husband, Hal, in the 25th annual Wooden Boat Festival at The Coeur d'Alene Resort Boardwalk Marina this weekend. "But it's just a piece of history."

The history Candace refers to is the vintage and craft of the couple's historic 1967 vessel - a trademark revelers and boaters alike come to Coeur d'Alene to celebrate beginning today.

Around 50 wooden classics will dock downtown this afternoon, with beauty and fine design in full supply.

What makes the boats so special compared to the contemporary counterparts?

That's hard to put a finger on.

They just are, owners say.

"The feel, the warmness," said Coeur d'Alene's Jeff Leist, describing what he likes most about his 34-foot 1941 craft, 'Simpler Times,' which he and his wife, Cindy, entered in the show.

And the warmth Leist describes isn't from the wooden frame attracting the sun, rather the feeling of cheer one absorbs on board.

"It's unique," he said. "Not many people have a big cruiser because not many people do the maintenance or do what it take to have one."

The wooden boats aren't the only unique water rides in town either. Alongside for the weekend will be a few hydroplanes for the Diamond Cup Regatta. Nevertheless, the wooden classics should hold their own compared to the racers as far as splendor goes.

"I don't know, they just touch me," said Greg Gillespie, of Coeur d'Alene, on the wooden design.

Gillespie entered his 16-foot boat, Sassy, in the show for the first time this year.

He says he doesn't have anything against plastic, but he knows where his heart is.

"It's simple, it's easy," he said of the plastic vessels. "But for me it's soulless. Wood speaks, and fiberglass doesn't."

The show, put on by the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce, attracts boats from across the Northwest and as far as Michigan this year. Registration and boat launching will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. An opening reception and cocktail party for boat owners will be from 6 to 7 tonight. And beginning from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday the boardwalk will be open for anyone who wants to catch a peek at what the owners are trying to describe.

"Plastic lacks soul," Gillespie said, trying one last time to put his finger on the difference. "They're like little plastic bobbers, bobbing out there. But to me, wooden boats are living, breathing, soulful creatures."