PHOTOS: Ahoy Matey! Pirates, Artisans Delight Crowd at Wooden Boat Festival

Family-friendly "pirates" delighted children at the annual Wooden Boat Festival, held Saturday at Huddy Park in downtown Toms River.

The Toms River Seaport Society and Maritime Museum sponsored the event, complete with food, pirate shows and local vendors. The festival was open to all wooden boats and iceboats and classic fiberglass boats more than 25 years old.

Events included family boat building in which a family registers and buys a kit to build at the show, and a childrens' boat-building tent where children were able to build pondboats and sail them in an inflatable pool.

There were a number of local artisans and vendors selling food, yard and ship ornaments and apparel. 

The Valhallas Pirates, led by Capt. Charles W. Black, had three performances and a cannon launch.

Black said the event went wonderfully and shared laughs with the crew after throwing a member in the waters of Huddy Park.

"The people were awesome, and the kids really thought we were real," Black said. "We put on an amazing performance and there are not a lot of crews that do what we do."

The Toms River Seaport Society, founded in 1976, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Barnegat Bay. The society strives to recreate the history of small craft boats that sailed around the New Jersey coastal waters.