What boats did you grow up with?

[ScottC]

Yes - I'm making too many posts on this forum because I have too much time on my hands. It seems we will not be able to get to our boat to use it at all this year, due to Covid-19.

In the mean time, I thought it might be interesting to for us to share the boats we grew up with. I'm sure a great many of us had parents and grandparents that were involved in boating.

What boats were in your family when you were a child?

I'll start:

- Canoe

- 16' 1939 Century inboard. Came with the cottage my dad bought in 1966. This is where I made my first mental note to avoid anything that involves varnish.

- 17' 1966 Starcraft. Johnson outboard. Aluminum. First time water skiing

- 20' 1968 Iola Molded Plastics (IMP) Aztec V. Mercruiser Inboard. A much better ski boat! Loved this boat!

- 32' 1964 Owens express. Twin gas. Hard chine. Pounded like the dickens in rough weather.

- 34' 1968 Pacemaker double cabin. This is where I must have made a mental note to avoid wood boats entirely in the future.

- 38' 1970 Bertram Salon cruiser (Double cabin) Twin Mercruiser gas. I liked this boat a LOT...because It would go fast and the forward cabin was MINE!

- 44' 1980 Marine Trader. Solid - but required lots of maintenance, right from the beginning.... even though it was new.

- 49' 1987 Gulfstar Motor Yacht. My dad acquired this long after I moved away, so I didn't get to experience this much. He used it going from Maine to FL on the ICW & to the Bahamas.


Reflecting back on all these boats, I think I probably spent more time working on them than enjoying the use of them. Nevertheless, the experiences were invaluable in giving me confidence for beginning my own boating hobby much later in life.

 

[BandB]

My father had a 9.9 hp outboard and rented boats. Then when I was 13, in 1983 he bought me a 17' Sea Ray. Shortly thereafter he got a 40' fishing boat with a 40 hp Evinrude.

In 1988, I traded for a 22' Sea Ray Pachanga.

In 1993, I traded for a 24' Sea Ray Bowrider.

In 1999, I traded for a 25' Cobalt Bowrider.

That was the boat I owned when I met my wife.

In 2007, we traded for a 30' Cobalt Bowrider. WOT was over 50 knots.

We sold that when we moved to Fort Lauderdale in 2012. Prior to 2012, all our boating was on a lake except one trip with friends on the TN River and TN Tom.

All my boats got very high usage for a lake as I boated year round when possible. I averaged over 400 hours a year until 1989. Then it dropped to 300 hours or so.

 

[tisado]

1960 or so at Morro Bay CA boat basin
I am blond girl in back. Home built boat purchased from an uncle. Wooden hull, metal roof, Willis(?)jeep engine. No real life jackets, we knew how to swim so didn't those. Seat cushions were all we needed. No radio.

If it was Saturday we went out. Coming back, my dad would surf the entrance by the 10E buoy. Scary days.

 

[OldDan1943]

I grew up with a row boat with a 71/2 Johnson outboard, a non-class sail boat, International 110 sailboat, a nuclear powered submarine, Folbot and then a destroyer. At some point I seemed to have stopped growing in height and now, I am expanded at my waist line.

 

[High Wire]

My uncle had a wood inboard cabin boat of some local make. Every year we scraped and painted so that we might go fishing once before catastrophe struck. Seemed like it sunk every year. He had one engine in the boat and 3 others in his garage as spares. My dad dreamed of owning an inboard garvey. A wood Garvey! Please no wood. I bought a 10’ Jon boat and 4 hp Evinrude with grass cutting money. Dad and I eventually settled for a 16’7 Boston Whaler then a 19’ Mako for fishing.

 

[BogCollector]

My childhood friend's Dad had a 30 something Chris Craft. Hardly ever took it out but we went many weekends so he could work on it and Patrick and I would take the tender and go cat fishing and exploring.

Later on my now ex-wife's Mom and step dad had a 28 foot sloop. We went on many day sails in San Francisco bay. Exciting scary and fun. Later they bought a 38 Foot Irwin Ketch. Anchored out many weekends. This has led me to have a lifelong dream of my own boat. I think I'll be ready to start looking - in person - in a couple of months.

 

[Fletcher500]

My single mother couldn't afford a boat so my brothers and I got jobs on sport fishing boats at very young ages. After school and marriage, I couldn't afford a boat raising kids and paying our mortgage so my water fix was surfboards and surf skis (fast kayaks). We could finally afford a boat 10 years ago. On our 3rd boat, and I love being out there as much as when I was 12 years old on the old sport fishers. My knees wouldn't handle a surfboard very well these days, so the timing worked out well. Every day on the water is a gift.

 

[Beaverlake]

Starting age ten, two weeks every summer up to Northern Wisconsin and my dad rented me a 14’ wooden boat and gave me aN old 5hp Evinrude. 2 weeks of absolute joy fishing with my “once a year friend”. Hooked for life.

 

[78puget-trawler]

We had lots of them living on a houseboat on Lake Union in Seattle in the 50's and 60's. One of my favorites was a 12' steel lifeboat that came off one of my dads tugs. I rowed that sucker all over from the Locks to Portage Bay. Also had various dinks and one 16' Banks style dory. Probably the neatest boat was a miniature of a local tugboat called the Susan H which was about 65' long, our little mini was just 12' IIRC. But being a scaled down tug hull it was quite deep and had a 10HP inboard in it. It actually pulled pretty well, I remember my dad using it to move one of his old 90' wood scows with it once.
My older brother was forever thumping me around for forgetting to open the raw water before blasting off!
This is me sitting in it getting ready for another adventure on the lake.

 

[micksbuddy]

None.

Got my first boat at age 35, have worked into it since then.

 

[syjos]

My parents did not have enough time or cash for recreational toys.

But I lived about half a mile from a lake and knew a kid that lived on the lake. His parents had a Gary 18 Flattie and took me sailing. I was hooked. They had a neighbor that bought a C-Lark who had two daughters that did not want to sail so needed crew. He taught me to sail and crewed for him on races on the lake. He taught me about maintenance and repairing things and I took care of his boat in return for a sail. Word got around and I got asked to crew on Thistles, Lightnings, Stars and other day sailors.

When I was about 12 or 13, I saved up enough money from mowing, paper routes and other jobs to build an El Toro sailboat in Junior High Wood Shop. I had purchased the plans and showed it to my shop teacher. He got all excited about the project and made it OK with administration even though a boat exceeded the project rules. The teacher would let me in to the classroom on weeknights and weekends so we could finish the boat. Finished the boat and sailed it for one summer. I built a dolly for the 8' sailboat and pushed it half a mile to get it to the boat ramp every day. Sold the El Toro at the end of summer at a pretty good profit.

Using the El Toro profit, built a 14' Trumbley sloop. Joe Trumbley was a Boat Building Instructor at Bates Vocational School that I met through my boating acquaintances and he sold me line drawings for a boat he had designed. I built the Trumbley at an Army Base Boatbuilding Shop.

One of the people I crewed for let me keep the Trumbley on their dock and I sailed it for a year until I got my drivers license. Kept the sailboat for a few more years with occasional use until I got into auto crossing and sold it.

Crewed for other people for a while. Lasers, Hobies, Thunderbirds.

Late 70's restored a wood Lightning, sailed it one summer and sold it. Did the same with a wood Star. Bought ugly colored used FG Lasers, painted them white and sold those after sailing them during summer.

Got into salmon fishing in the late 70's and bought a 17' Glassply Outboard. Sold that and bought a 34' Mainship in the mid 80's. Sold that in 2000 and bought Sandpiper, a 40' Bluewater, which we still have..

 

[Recb]

The general consensus is I haven't grown up. As a child we had an 18' locally built wooden boat powered with a 25hp universal marine. We also had a wood punt. When I was 10 my parents bought a 20' Correct Craft powered with a 225hp Chrysler Marine and a 7.5' fibreglass punt with a 1.5hp British Seagull outboard. Along the way we also acquired a Laser and an 11' Boston Whaler.

 

[Lepke]

My dad was a marine chief engineer, we lived on a river. The first boat I remember was a WWII rubber liferaft. The kind dropped to downed aircrew. It was good for fishing in still water and no wind. Later my dad and mom's brothers built a large planked row boat that I learned to row on. It was heavy and stable, not like the aluminum ones today. When I was 7, I got to use it myself and got to use an outboard when I was 9. It was my babysitter. Now days my parents probably woulda been arrested.
At 7, about 1955, I got to go with my dad on a Liberty ship from Astoria to San Pedro to new owners, APL bought it out of the mothball fleet. Most of the crew were relatives. My extended family had a business breaking out mothballed ships and getting them running again. Later I got to make other trips. I was hooked.

 

[Wayfarer]

There was only one really important boat when I was a kid. My stepfather's '85 Sea Sprite 285 Escapade, called 'Over the Wall.'

I loved that thing. For years we spent every weekend aboard. It's a huge part of what made me who I am today. I was the luckiest kid in the world.

 

[twistedtree]

Mine was a 16', 7" Boston Whaler, not to be confused with the later 17' models. It was a 1965 hull, with a 1969 Johnson 60hp that we bought in 1974 when I was 14. That got me totally hooked on boats.


In the late 70's I took it to upstate NY where I was in college, and futzed around in the Mohawk River which is also the Erie Canal in that area. Went through one or two locks, and started to wonder where it all went. Then I discovered "cool", you can get to the ocean via NYC, the Great Lakes, then back to the Ocean again via the St Lawrence, and though "I'll do that loop some day".


Dial forward to 2010, and I dragged my wife on the Downeast loop. She was a bit skeptical, though also an avid boater. That trip got us hooked on distance cruising, and it's never been the same since.


BTW, I still have the Whaler.

 

[JohnP]

Had a lot of fun zooming around in my Dads 14' Starcraft with a 33hp Johnson!

 

[FoxtrotCharlie]

Like the OP, our first boat in 1966 (I was 10) was a 15' Starcraft fiberglass ski boat, with a 40hp Johnson We did not live near big water, so it was lake skiing. We had a series of ski boats til I left for college - then my parents bought a motorhome. My next boat was a 1965 28' Chris Craft Cavalier cabin cruiser on a large lake - purchased it in 1984 at age 28. Sold it about five yrs later, and then had a Catalina 22 sailboat on the same large lake. Sold it in 2005. Nothing except canoes until we purchased our 42' CHB Present two yrs ago. Plans to start the LOOP this fall are a bit fluid- pun intended.

 

[rslifkin]

I grew up with the same 38 foot Chris Craft I currently own. First time on board I was 3 days old. Previous owners were my grandparents, so when it was time for them to sell, my boat buying decision was basically made for me. For now, I've got no urge to upgrade, so this boat will likely stay until I have a reason to change to something significantly different.

 

[GoneFarrell]

First was my mom's 18 foot Old Town canoe when I was very young. She still has it!

My dad built 2 small narrow hulls for kids, we could rig them as a catamaran or as a couple of outriggers, one with a lateen rigged sail. The "sailboat" was my first real solo cruise on a high lake in Oregon, where I immediately blew down wind onto a rocky shore and had to figure out how to tack upwind to get back. Those boats set the hook.

Neighbor gave us a 17 foot clapped out wood skiff with 5 HP Johnson. We fixed the leaks, made the motor run and landed Dungeness crabs for years in that boat.

Then a 14 foot plywood outboard with a Johnson that would pull a water skier (my mom used to be on the water ski squad at Cypress Gardens).

A nice 16 foot Bayliner with 85 Evinrude followed that, great ski boat!

Those were good times.

I built a nice stitch & glue rowboat in '93, still have it.

 

[danderer]

30' cruiser built by Edwards Boat yard circa 1930 - she still exists
21' Owens (or was it Trojan?) outboard cruiser
25' cruiser (builder unknown but they specialized in building garage doors -- she sank at the mooring 1 week after we sold her)
12' O'Day Widgeon
22' Columbia 22
29' Pearson Triton
32' Pearson 323

 

[MurrayM]

None.

Got my first boat at age 35, have worked into it since then.

Late starter here as well. Not counting sea kayaks, got first boat (Badger) at 50 years young.

 

[jleonard]

I was almost 40 when I got my first boat.
Before that I had only been on a boat a few times.

 

[boatpoker]

I grew up around these (I'm the one in the school uniform). My Great Grandfathers boat is somewhere in the background.

 

[Nomad Willy]

A 17’ varnished and w yellow trim mahogany and oak outboard cruiser.
Had a Johnson 35 and went out for a week at times. Once I went solo from Edmonds Wa through the San Juan Is. and through the Gulf Is. .. across Georgia Strait. Then up the Frazer R to Pit lake. I still remember that trip well.

 

[GFC]

I grew up with a cottage on Lake Huron and started my boating "career" at age 5 with a 9' rowboat.

At age 7 I got a 7.5hp Evinrude for it and thought I was the fastest boat to ever hit the waters.

Around age 11 I got a Sailfish, a 13' sailboat made by Alcort. I was on that boat every day, all summer long and the boat felt like it was part of my body. I could feel every nuance of the wind, the boat heeling over, etc.

I left home at age 15 and didn't have another boat until I moved out here. I found myself on weekends watching people unload and load their boats onto trailers and it finally dawned on me that I needed a boat.

I bought a 20' Reinell open bow boat with a 5.0 liter engine and used the heck out of it. I finally sold it about 10 years later to buy a bigger boat.

That bigger boat was a 1996 330 Sundancer and I was in heaven. I used the heck out of it until one night I was drifting on the river with some friends and we were hit by a BUI boater who totaled my boat.

I liked that boat so much I bought another one almost exactly like the one that was totaled. I kept that boat and traded it in when I bought my next "bigger boat".

That was in 2000 and the bigger boat was a 550 Sedan Bridge that we still own but are getting ready to list with a broker in Seattle. The only issue with that is we need to do a 750 mile cruise to get it there.

 

[BogCollector]

from syjos : re: the El Toro.
I had forgotten about this! Another friend had an El Toro sail boat. We used to "cruise" Lake Vasona in Los Gatos Ca. One of the first times I got to steer it we sank! Great fun.
I remember getting whacked in the head more than a few times coming about.

 

[78puget-trawler]

This is the boat I really wanted in the early 60's on Lake Union. It was moored at my Grand dads yard in Fremont. It was a Navy surplus 26' wood whaleboat conversion. It had a 30 HP Palmer in it and when I was keen on it, it had a mast and boom with a barrel like crows nest! For some reason which I was unable at the time to comprehend, my hard working and usually broke dad just couldn't see where it was worth the $1000 asking price.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: I didn't grow up with any boat or around any. Only time I was on a boat was once went with a friend to a church event and we were on a pontoon boat for a little while. I thought it was great and saw the other boats on the lake, but honestly I couldn't even imagine ever owning a boat.

Next boat contact was as "boat show candy". Yes, this was a huge indoor boat show and I did the same for car shows, you just go and stand around and occasionally help people find someone to talk to but your primary job is to make boats (or cars) look sexy. I would try to know a little about the boats in the booth I was working for. Oh, officially they called us hostesses. I had no idea though what boating was like or how much fun it could be. You really don't get the spirit of it with a bunch of boats packed into a coliseum.

Then after meeting my hubby I flew to his home in NC for a weekend. I was 21 by this time. I knew how he loved boating but didn't understand it until he took me out on his boat and we explored the lake and he even let me drive it and, oh boy, did I like that. Funny thing was I'd worked booths with Cobalt Boats like his but they did nothing for me there. Sure did turn me on out on the water though, me driving, 40 mph, him making sure I didn't screw up, and to me at that time the lake was "open water." I still didn't imagine anything bigger. I thought the lake was huge and wonderful. The thought that soon I'd be able to do that regularly.

I was hooked. It was like a guy sharing his drugs with you and getting you hooked, but it was boating. We spent at least 18 hours on the water in the two days. I was also greatly relieved that I loved his favorite pastime as much as he did. It was magical as we shared one more love but this one was huge. Our other shared loves were music, basketball, and tennis. Boating was making my perfect world with him even more perfect.

After we married and I moved there, we boated every possible chance and ultimately bought a house on the water so our boat was in our back yard. I learned to appreciate boating in so many ways. It was a freedom as the wind in your face, blowing your hair, and the water surrounding you. It was also such wonderful relaxation. That summer I wasn't working and hadn't started college yet, but I saw it's affect on him. He'd come home after a tough day and we'd get out on the lake and I could see it's effect. I'd really come to appreciate that as I did college and grad school and then taught. I remember one day when he got home around 6:00 o'clock and I kissed him and said "Boat." He looked at me and said, "Tough day?" and I nodded yes. Talking about my day could wait until we got back home later. It was as if there was some rule on the boat that we couldn't carry our stress with us.

I'm amazed how many of you had boats in your childhood lives. I'm sure some of you never appreciated how fortunate you were, even with the 6' canoes. I'd gone 21 years having no idea what I was missing but now can't even imagine not having a boat or boats or more boats....oh god, I'm so spoiled. I've known poverty and I've known being spoiled and I'll take spoiled. :lol:

 

[syjos]

from syjos : re: the El Toro.
I had forgotten about this! Another friend had an El Toro sail boat. We used to "cruise" Lake Vasona in Los Gatos Ca. One of the first times I got to steer it we sank! Great fun.
I remember getting whacked in the head more than a few times coming about.

I saw an El Toro recently. Could'nt believe how tiny it was. I must have been small at 13.

I also recall getting hit on the noggin a few times.

 

[magna 6882]

My first boat was a small boat i built somewhat like the old mahogany Chris craft. It was 8ft long and i installed a 30hp evenrude in the front 1/3 of the boat. I cut off the housing on the shaft so the outboard was about 2ft high. I then ran a 5/8 shaft through the bottom. The rudder and shaft was on pillow blocks on the stern. The exhaust was a tube with the muffler under a bench seat that held two people. I had to build a steel fin off the bottom to get the boat to turn. We could pull a water skier and the little boat would do 40mph.
I gave the boat to my little brother 30 years ago and its still in his garage.
To shift i made a linkage to connect to the original shift shaft and had a throttle pedal. The flywheel is all that stood above bow to start it.
Fun to be young with access to tools.

The only negative was it was the old mans outboard i cut in half. I really thought he didn't want it anymore but that was not the case.