2023 National Meet Info

6TH ANNUAL NATIONAL WOODIE CLUB MEET

Mystic, Conn. July 20, 21, 22 & 23. 2023

The 6th Annual National Woodie Club National Meet will be held in Mystic, CT on July 20 – 23, 2023. NWC members are encouraged to attend with or without a woodie. For those who plan to arrive early, there is much to do and enjoy in the Mystic area before the meet activities get underway.

Bill Lyman, Coordinator for the 2023 Mystic Meet, has offered to use his home as a shipping destination for those interested. He has a large yard and would be happy to park and watch over a few woodies until their owners can pick them up. If interested, contact him at mysticwoodies@gmail.com.

Trailer parking

If you trailer your woodie to Mystic, there are a couple options for trailer parking. Please indicate on your registration form what option you plan to use.

Check with your hotel as most have good size parking lots that can accommodate some trailers.

An alternative is an area in the Mystic Seaport North parking lot located on Velvet Lane off of RT 27. There will be an area designated in that lot where trailers can be left at no cost for the time you are here

Thursday Meet and Greet

A Meet & Greet will kick-off our 2023 event at 4:00pm on Thursday afternoon at the Mystic Hilton.

Come when you can and connect with fellow woodie lover’s in the Water Fall lounge area of the IRONS Restaurant

There will be a table to check-in, pickup your Meet Information packet containing helpful information about the meet schedule, planned cruise routes and some of the local favorites for eating and shopping.

Event merchandise will be available for sale.

Yankee Wood Chapter will provide some munchies and a cash bar will be available for beverages at Happy Hour prices until 6:00pm.

Friday Morning Woodie Cruise

Check-in between 8:00-9:00am at Mystic Seaport Museum South Parking lot off of RT 27 across from the big red tugboat, and pick up your Meet Information packet if you did not get it on Thursday. If you come without a woodie, we will help you catch a ride. Leave your vehicle in the left side back of the lot.

Cruise will start at 9:00am and proceed across the drawbridge and through downtown Mystic on the way to the seaside village of Noank. The drive though the village will include some great shoreline views!

From Noank the cruise will go to the ocean front campus of UCONN at Avery Point. A 20 minute stop will allow for a short walk to take in the views and see the historic mansion that was once the centerpiece of this ocean front estate.

From there we will proceed up the eastern shore of the Thames River, by Electric Boat submarine builder, along the historic waterfront of Groton, and on to the Submarine Museum and USS Nautilus.

There is plenty of parking at the museum, and admission is free. There are indoor and outdoor exhibits, covering a good perspective of our nation’s submarine history. Take time to go aboard and walk through the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine. It is just a few years younger than most of our woodies, but is antique in terms of today’s submarine technology.

There is no planned departure time for the return ride to Mystic so that you may take as long as you wish at the museum. Your information package will show the route back to Mystic, and cars may go in groups or individually as desired.

Friday afternoon is free time for whatever you may like to do!

Friday Evening Woodie Cruise

Woodies desiring to participate will gather in the Olde Mistick Village parking lot at 4:00pm for a 4:30pm departure to Stonington Village. (also known as Stonington Borough). Again if you are without a woodie, we will help you catch a ride.

We will take some country roads to get to this old fishing village that is loaded with historic homes, and has a three state view (RI, NY and CT) from the point.

From the village we will proceed towards the rural uplands part of town and on to Stonington Vineyards. (Note: If not attending the Summer Music event, you may enjoy an evening in Stonington Village or navigate elsewhere)

Summer Music at Stonington Vineyards

This outdoor picnic / music event is held on Friday nights through the summer, and it goes from 6:00 – 9:00pm. Bring your own chair or blanket, and enjoy a relaxing evening with friends, food, wine and music.

Visit www.stoningtonvineyards.com and go to Summer Concert Series for details on the July 21st event. The group Big Dawg Issac is an acoustic trio that performs many styles of popular music. Tickets are $15 pp at the door / $10 pp on-line and may be purchased on-line up to 5pm on Thursday July 20th.

IMPORTANT NOTES: For priority Woodie parking, you must purchase tickets on-line, and there is a place in the checkout process to add a note that you are coming in a Woodie. There is no reason to purchase too early as this outdoor venue does not have limited attendance, and it is a rain or shine event, so waiting until you have a reasonable forecast of the Friday night weather makes sense. Also if coming with a Woodie and not participating in the Stonington Village cruise, please plan to arrive by 6:00pm.

A couple food trucks will offer items for sale, or you may bring your own picnic food. Wine will be available for sale by the glass or bottle. (Note: Bringing your own alcohol is not allowed)

It is about a 10-15 minute ride back to Mystic hotels from the Vineyard.

6th Annual National Woodie Club Meet

6th Annual National Woodie Club Meet will be held with the 5th Annual Woodies at Mystic Seaport Meet and along with the Antique & Classic Boat Rendezvous on Saturday at Mystic Seaport Museum.

Woodies may arrive at the South Gate (look for Antique Car Sign near the Anchor Cafe) and drive in to the check-in area. You will pickup your 2 one day passes and get directed to the display area on the green. The green area is surrounded by several trees, so if you like to sit in the shade, there should be some nearby.

Any passengers and those coming without a woodie who need to purchase Group Rate admission tickets may do so at the Welcome Center.

The display area will have both National Woodie Club and Yankee Wood Chapter tents with members that will be selling club merchandise and can help with any problems you may have.

Mystic Seaport Museum is unlike any other maritime museum in the world, so take advantage of your time here to take some of it in. Make sure to go aboard the Charles W Morgan, the only remaining whaling ship of its kind in the world. After a multi-year restoration a few years ago, she went on her 38th voyage from Mystic to Boston and back. You can watch her leave from and return to Mystic, and see her with whales off Cape Cod on www.youtube.com. Search Charles W Morgan 38th Voyage

Make time also to check out the antique and classic boats that will be in the water dockside. These boats are invited to the Seaport every year, and you never know what unique type of watercraft might show up. Their captains are also interesting folks to swap stories with, and they will likely be interested in our woodies. We are fortunate to be displaying on the same day.

The museum has a couple good restaurants on the grounds, so there is no excuse for going hungry during your visit.

The National Woodie Club will have the President’s Choice Award, and the Regional Director’s Awards (one for each region). Yankee Wood will collect votes from people attending the show throughout the day for the Favorite Woodie Award. This award is a one-year membership to Mystic Seaport Museum. Awards will be presented at the Saturday evening dinner.

About 3:00-3:30pm the woodies will parade around and off the grounds. For safety reasons all the cars will leave at the same time. Visitor’s love seeing the cars in motion and hearing some of the unique horns as we depart.

Saturday Buffet Dinner

The buffet dinner will be held at the Elmridge Golf Course Clubhouse in Stonington. The rural setting is surrounded by a 27 hole golf course, has plenty of parking, and is about a 15 minute ride via country roads from the Mystic hotel area. Directions will be included in your information packet.

Tickets for the buffet dinner must be purchased in advance with your registration form. Children under 12 may eat for free. The buffet menu will be determined when the clubhouse opens in the spring of 2023. Check back here for more details then.

On Saturday the clubhouse will close to the public at 5:00pm, and our event will begin at 6:00pm, so we will have the entire facility to ourselves. We will be using the main dinning room, a large outdoor covered deck, and a separate bar area.

After dinner activities will include presentation of show awards, selection of the raffle winner, and an auction of donated items to raise funds for the club. Event merchandise will be available for sale during the evening.

Sunday Morning Woodie Cruise

Woodies desiring to participate will gather in the Olde Mistick Village parking lot at 8:30am for a 9:00am departure to New London, Ct. via secondary roads and crossing the Thames River using the right lane of the I-95 bridge.

We will do a drive-thru visit to the scenic U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a stop for photos and a very brief talk about the Academy. Please note: All visitors entering the Academy grounds must present a valid ID.

Next stop will be Fort Trumbull State Park on the shores of the Thames River with views out to Long Island Sound. The existing fort was built between 1839 and 1852 on a site that has had forts to protect New London going back to colonial days.

Visiting the grounds and fort is free. There is a charge for the Visitor Center which has an interesting exhibit area. Visitors may stay here for as long as they want depending on when they would like to return to Mystic.

LOCAL TIP - Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock is a great outdoor spot for your favorite seafood lunch, and is only a couple minutes from Fort Trumbull on the way back towards Mystic.
There are a couple options for the ride back to Mystic. After crossing the bridge, take the first exit on the right and go back the way we came, or stay on I-95 and go to Exit 90 in Mystic.