Authenticity

The subject of Authenticity is of obvious importance to a festival attempting to re-enact a certain period of time and certain type of watercraft. In the past it has been a divisive issue and one which volumes could be written about and the issue never really settled. My opinion is that a certain level of authenticity is important to keep the festival true to it’s goals and to avoid an ‘anything which floats" festival including floating bathtubs with styrofoam outriggers. But having said that I think authenticity should not become an unnecessary barrier to people building boats and participating in the festival.

We have lively discussions about the fact that there were many different designs of boats on the river during the late 1700’s which is clearly true. The Anthony Rucker is constructed in a way to be a reasonably authentic replica of boat #28 which was one of the boats found in Richmond when the original boats were unearthed and documented in the early 1980’s. I believe it would be easily recognized by Thomas Jefferson and others of his time as a copy of the boats which were hauling tobacco from Lynchburg to Richmond.