The Wooden Boat Festival's Real Main Event Gets Built in Two Days and Raced on Sunday Afternoon
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"9:00 AM - Power turned ON---Start your saws!"
That line appears twice in the Maritime Museum Louisiana's 2026 rules for the Quick 'n' Dirty Boat Building Contest, once for Saturday, October 17, and once for Sunday, October 18. Between those two mornings, up to 15 teams take a stack of plywood and lumber and turn it into something they hope will float. By Sunday afternoon they're sailing and rowing it down the Tchefuncte while the town watches.
The 35th Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both days and puts more than 100 classic boats on the river. Those boats are the headline, and they look the same at 10 a.m. Saturday as they do at 5 p.m. Sunday. The Quick 'n' Dirty is the part of the weekend that changes from one hour to the next, and its schedule is the best way to plan your time on the riverfront.
Nearly all of the classic boat program happens before the gates open. Boat owners check in at the Madisonville Community Center as early as Thursday, October 15, and the judges go through on Saturday. Captains get their awards at the Community Center at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, which is before most visitors have found a place to park. Visitors see the finished display. Boats sit docked along the seawall, and the Docking Committee moves them as needed.
The Quick 'n' Dirty works the other way around. Its 2026 rules call it "a two-day fun-filled festival in & of itself." Teams pick themes, name their boats and come in costume, which the museum says gives the event "a Mardi Gras feel." You can't take it in with one visit. Come by Saturday morning and you'll see bare lumber. Come back Sunday afternoon and the same lumber is a boat in the water with a crew paddling it.
Every team gets a roped-off space of 10 by 15 feet, staked out with yellow caution tape the Friday before the festival. Spots are first come, first served. The rules tell crews to bring "a multitude of extension cables" because some spots are a long way from an outlet. Teams pay a $200 entry fee and usually have four to six people.
Materials arrive when the build starts Saturday, and teams can use only what the festival hands out. The kit includes:
Teams bring their own paint, and that's the only exception. It has to be latex paint or stain. Spray paint, rubberized coatings, lacquers and oil paint aren't allowed, and the finish has to be dry to the touch before the boat goes in the water. Extra fasteners are banned, including washers, bolts, staples and dowels made from outside wood. A team that uses them can still race but can't win a trophy. The build area has no cooking of any kind and no alcohol.
So every boat at the start line comes from the same pile of plywood, screws and glue. Whatever separates the winners was decided in those roped-off squares over the two mornings.
Here is the full calendar, from the Thursday check-in to the Sunday trophies. Times come from the museum's 2026 rules and registration pages.
Some festival listings say the Quick 'n' Dirty starts at 2 p.m. and others say 3 p.m. Both are right. The parade starts at 2 and the race at about 3.
The parade has its own rule. Unless crews hear otherwise, the last boat in the parade is the first one in the water. The museum encourages crews to dress up and bring throws for the crowd. Combine costumed crews, hand-built boats on the move and beads flying, and the walk from the museum to Water Street feels like a Mardi Gras parade.
On the river, each boat carries one or two people, and everyone on board wears a U.S. Coast Guard-approved Type III life jacket. Each crew can put four members on the dock to launch, and any other crew members have to leave the dock as soon as the boat is in. The course runs about 200 yards to a buoy, which boats round on their left. One leg is sailed and the other is rowed or paddled. The wind that day decides where the starting line goes. Officials measure mast heights the day before. During the sailing leg, an oar can be used as a rudder, but paddling with it disqualifies a boat from awards.
If a boat loses an oar or a sail, the rules say to "do your best to complete the contest," and award exceptions are decided "based on failure and attitude." Not every trophy goes to the fastest boat. There are prizes for first, second and third place, a "Best in Show," a Shipshape Award for construction, and the "Subsurface Cruiser" for the crew that experiences "that sinking feeling."
Visit The Northshore lists Marina del Ray as one of the docking hubs for festival boats and as a place to watch the Quick 'n' Dirty.
Admission is $15 for one day or $20 for both days for ages 13 and up. Children 12 and under get in free. A two-day pass is the way to see the Quick 'n' Dirty from bare lumber to finished boat, since the build starts Saturday and the race happens Sunday.
Parking near the festival is limited. The visitor guide recommends a free direct shuttle from Sam's Club at 69630 Stirling Blvd. in Covington, and it lists a small amount of accessible and RV parking at the museum. Water Street has the riverfront music stage and the arts-and-crafts booths. Dogs aren't allowed on festival grounds. Both the boat owner rules and the Quick 'n' Dirty rules say so, and a team that breaks the pet rule is disqualified immediately.
Families with kids should know one limit. Children under 18 can be in the build area only with adult supervision and a signed waiver, and they can't ride in a boat during the race.
Sunday has a gap between 1 p.m., when the saws stop, and the 2 p.m. parade, and several local spots are close enough to fill it. Abita Roasting Company at 504 Water St. made Gambit's 2026 Northshore list for breakfast and brunch. Cherrybomb Coffee at 306 Covington St. is on the same list, a short walk from the river. Next to it is Madisonville's newest public art, a mural by Sarah Megan Jenkins-Duncan unveiled in August. It's the fifth mural in Visit The Northshore's parish-wide series. Farther down the riverfront is Morton's Seafood Restaurant & Bar at 702 Water St.
Anyone watching from the mouth of the river this year will see new work nearby. In May, St. Tammany Parish started building the Tchefuncte Breakwater near Madisonville. The $2.4 million project is a 1,750-foot rock wall meant to cut wave energy and slow shoreline erosion, and it's designed so water can flow over it during high water to help marsh grow back. Parish officials expect it to be finished by the end of 2026.
This year's festival king and queen are Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and his wife, Cher. They were named at the museum's June 11 fundraising gala. The museum also runs a small vendor rule on the seawall. Only museum-provided FOR SALE signs are allowed on registered boats, so a classic boat you like might actually be for sale.
The 4:30 p.m. trophy presentation on the Community Center band stage is the last scheduled event of the weekend. Crews are told to come back to the work area for awards and the closing ceremony, and they're responsible for clearing their space and hauling their boats away.
Living a few blocks from the Tchefuncte puts you close to weekends like this one, and that's part of what Madisonville homes are worth. If you'd like to know what your home near the river would bring in today's market, Felicity Kahn & Associates can walk you through it whenever you're ready. Get your free home valuation.
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