When the 13th annual Port Aransas Wooden Boat Festival opens at Roberts Point Park on Friday, four families will start building a boat. When it closes on Sunday, they'll launch it finished. The festival calls this the Family Boat Build and describes it as a tradition it repeats every year.
That three-day build is a good way to plan the coming weekend on the island. Something is scheduled on each day of it, from Friday's gallery opening to Sunday's market and launch, and most of it is run by a Port Aransas organization working for something on the island: a boat shop, a wildlife rehabilitation center, the animal shelter, the art center, the community theatre. For anyone who lives here, the busiest weekend of the fall is mostly local organizations at work.
Why the festival starts with a boat shop
The Wooden Boat Festival runs Friday through Sunday, Nov. 6 to 8, at Roberts Point Park, 301 J C Barr Blvd. The host is the Port Aransas Preservation and Historical Association, known as PAPHA, and its event page lists the festival as an all-day event. The festival's own site describes handcrafted kayaks, paddleboards, skiffs and sailing boats on display, along with historic Farley boats.
Those Farley boats are the reason the festival exists. In 1915 the Farley brothers began building what the festival describes as some of the first production fishing boats in the United States, right here in Port Aransas. The Farleys closed in 1975. In 2011 PAPHA bought their last location, retooled the machine shop, trained a group of volunteers and restarted boatbuilding on the island as Farley Boat Works. The festival was created by the staff and volunteers of that shop to show off wooden boatbuilding, and the festival's About page credits Farley Boat Works with about 120 boats built since it reopened.
So the boats at Roberts Point Park are both a display and the output of a working shop on the island. The festival also brings in wooden boats from individual builders and kit companies around the country, and the organizers pitch it as a place where people thinking about building their first boat can see what's possible.
The festival pages don't post daily hours, admission or a minute-by-minute schedule. Before heading over, check the PAPHA event page and woodenboatfestival.org for the latest details.
Friday night on Alister Street
While the families make their first cuts at the park, the evening moves to the Port Aransas Art Center at 104 North Alister Street. The center's November First Friday reception opens a show called "November Shores" on Nov. 6. The Port Aransas South Jetty describes it as an exhibition of fall-themed work. The center's page doesn't list reception hours, so check with the center before you go.
Port Aransas Community Theatre is in the middle of its run of "Wait Until Dark," which plays through Nov. 15. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays, and general admission is $24.23, according to the South Jetty. That means a show on Thursday, the night before the festival, or on Friday after the gallery. The Sunday matinee also fits after the market closes.
Saturday: twenty years of the ARK
Saturday evening belongs to the Amos Rehabilitation Keep. Friends of the ARK is holding its 20th-anniversary "Fall for the ARK" gala at 6 p.m. on Nov. 7 at the Civic Center to raise money for the ARK.
The South Jetty's August preview lays out the evening: a cash bar, dinner, live and silent auctions, and music by Aloha Dave and the Tourists. Individual tickets are $50 per person, and gold sponsorship tables for eight are $1,000. The paper lists Friends of the ARK executive director Lee Harrison as the contact for tickets at 361-332-6361. Those details come from August, so a quick call before the weekend will confirm availability.
So the festival keeps a craft going, and the gala keeps a rescue operation going. Over the same weekend, two Port A organizations ask the island for support in very different ways.
Sunday: the park holds the market and the finish line
By Sunday the boat at Roberts Point Park should be close to done, and the same park takes on a second job. The Port Aransas Farmers Market runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fred Rhodes Memorial Pavilion, and PAPHA's market page says the fall market is partnering with PAPHA during Wooden Boat Festival weekend. The South Jetty places the pavilion at Dennis Dreyer Municipal Harbor and says the market brings together Coastal Bend farmers, ranchers, oyster growers and food artisans.
The visitors bureau listing names The Studio as the presenter and lists the market as free, with produce, artisan goods, wellness products, handmade items, fresh seafood and live music.
At noon, two hours into the market, the pink golf carts set out. The fourth annual Pink Flamingo Pub Crawl starts at Texas Red's Riviera, 315 S. Alister St., Suite 104. It's presented by Salty Paws of Port Aransas and benefits the Port Aransas Animal Shelter. The South Jetty invites everyone to dress in pink and decorate their golf carts.
Here is how the crawl works, according to the event listing:
- Bring your cart to Texas Red's Riviera before the noon start.
- Pay the $10 cart entry fee and bring an item to donate to the animal shelter.
- Ride to four stops along the route.
- Return to Texas Red's for silent-auction tables and raffles.
The listing doesn't name the four stops, so check with the hosts before Sunday if you want the route.
A morning at the harbor market supports Coastal Bend growers during PAPHA's festival weekend, and an afternoon on the crawl raises money for the animal shelter. The family boat is scheduled to launch when the festival ends.
Roberts Point Park stays busy into December
Once the wooden boats leave, Roberts Point Park becomes the site of the city's drive-through holiday light display. Organizers have invited residents, organizations and businesses to decorate four-foot wooden tree cutouts for it, according to the South Jetty. The notice doesn't give a deadline or display dates, so contact the organizers soon if you want to enter a tree.
The rest of the holiday calendar is already on the books:
- Holiday Shop Around, Dec. 11 to 13. The visitors bureau's holiday page lists the three-day shopping event.
- Lighted Boat Parade and Holiday Drone Show, Saturday, Dec. 12, 6 p.m. The free event at Fisherman's Wharf, 900 Tarpon Street, advertises more than 150 drones and live music by The Cleartones, per the official listing.
From November to December, the season moves from wooden boats at Roberts Point Park to lighted boats at Fisherman's Wharf.
Living in Port Aransas comes with traditions like a three-day boat build and a pink cart parade for the shelter. If you're hosting family for the festival or thinking about your own place on the island, Teel Properties is happy to talk through what matters to you, from the harbor to Alister Street. Let's Connect.
