COEUR d'ALENE - Mrs. Txus Paul, from the beautiful city of Barcelona, Spain, thinks they're almost too fine to drop in water.

She loves meticulously crafted wooden ornaments, from homes to furniture, and Friday, visiting from her new home in Portland, Ore., she admired the crafted wooden vessels at the 26th annual Coeur d'Alene Wooden Boat Show from The Coeur d'Alene Resort Boardwalk and thought they were almost too nice to get wet.

"It's like a pity," she said, when she first saw the boats dropping in the water. "It was like 'Oh my gosh, no!'"

But in the water is where they belong, as dozens of the boats made wake to the weekend event, dedicated to antique enthusiasts, relics and admirers alike.

And once Paul saw them in the water, their natural habitat, they looked "impeccable," she said.

"I've seen some beautiful ones," she said. "You just have to see them. They're gorgeous."

The show coincides with the inaugural Regional Antique and Classic Boat Society Chapters Classic, and boaters of the vessels listened in on seminars and traded advice on keeping the boats -some 50 plus years old - in tip-top shape.

But simply eye candy they aren't. The beauties have muscle too.

"It's just a nice ride and you're low to the water," said Don Robson, with his 1964 Century ski boat. And being so low and smooth makes riding in a fiberglass model seem like a balancing act on a trampoline. "We use this more than we use our fiberglass boats. So that should tell you your answer right there."

Kristan Overby is new to the club, and it is a club.

Owner of 16 boats - that's right, 16 - he has owned his first wooden craft, a 1956 model named 'Madalyn,' for three months.

"I love it," he said, having entered in the show for the first time. "It's like a Harley. Harley's aren't made for speed, they're made for cruising."

The boats will be up and down the docks the rest of the weekend, running 10 this morning to 5 this afternoon and concluding Sunday at 3 p.m.

The event is free to the public.

And for as pretty as they are, they do belong in the water, packing a punch when they zip across it once they're there.

Checking out the other boats' muscle, not just looks, is what the event is about.

"That," said boat owner Ellis Nunn, "is the whole deal."