More than 30 classic wooden boats will be on display Saturday and Sunday at the ninth annual Big Sky Antique and Classic Boat Show in Lakeside.

Show hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. At 3:30 p.m. Sunday, boats will launch a parade from Conrad Point along the west shore of Flathead Lake.

The free show is a spectator’s dream, but there’s much more to the event than the lineup of mahogany beauties, show co-chairman Alex Berry said.

The show will introduce a new boating program for Flathead County middle-school and high-school students.

“The proposed 2014-2015 after-school program will offer students an opportunity to learn how to build and sail nearly four-feet-long remote-control racing sailboats,” Berry said. “As part of the program, which is run by the Montana Wooden Boat Foundation, once participating students have built their boats, they will be able to compete in interscholastic racing regattas in and around the valley.”

Another highlight will be the homecoming of the “Big Sky,” a torpedo-stern runabout built by Stanley Young at the StanCraft Wooden Boat Co. in 1946. StanCraft was founded in 1933 at Lakeside by Billy Young and his son Stanley.

Originally named “77-II”, the boat was delivered to Alton Pearce of Kalispell on Flathead Lake. Alan Furth bought it in 1985 and renamed it “Big Sky.” The runabout was brought to Lake Tahoe, where it was acquired by Bob and Paula Boldt. 

“Big Sky” has been restored several times by Tony Brown on Lake Tahoe and by Syd Young, Stan Young’s son, at the StanCraft Boat Co., now in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. 

Rebecca Brown of Conrad will have her 16-foot cedar-strip canoe on display at the show. She started building the canoe as an eighth-grader and finished it just before graduating from Conrad High School earlier this year.

Stop by the Montana Wooden Boat Foundation tent to buy raffle tickets for the Columbia Falls Middle School students’ 12-foot rowing skiff named “CATS.” 

Students completed the watercraft working for two hours, two days a week for more than three months in an after-school boat-building program.

“By participating in the Montana Wooden Foundation Boat Building Program, these hard-working and talented students gained boat-building skills, and an important civics lesson in helping to support their community,” Berry said. 

Tickets are also available by calling Berry at 471-2293. 

There will be a display and demonstration of standup paddleboards and an in-water kayak safety demonstration for show participants.

Back by popular demand will be model boat-building for young children at the Montana Wooden Boat Foundation show tent. 

The activity will be offered on Saturday and Sunday during the boat show and will last until model building materials run out.

Herb McAllister, a former TV children’s show personality and local artist, created this year’s boat show poster and will be on hand to sign posters. He will feature his new Flathead Lake poster that identifies locations of early steamboats that went down in and around the lake.

An additional highlight will be a display of restored wooden cars and early-day station wagons from the 1930s and 1940s in front of Glacier Bank in Lakeside.