Santa brought me a Sevylor 3 man scout raft when I was 7 years old. It was camoflage and oar powered. Mom and Dad got me a 17 lbs. thrust Minn Kota trolling motor for it for my birthday. A year or so later I found a 10 ft fiberglass semi-V on the side of the road for sale for $25. I bought it with some of my lawn cutting money and later added a 3hp sears air-cooled outboard for $40. Never could get the sears outboard to fire, so I put the Minn Kota on the back. Used it in the lakes around Stone Mountain and in the creek me and my friends used to dam up behind our house. Years later Mom accidentally backed over it in the driveway one afternoon when I was painting it. For my 10th birthday we went to the Atlanta Boat Show and Dad bought an 87 Sylvan V-171 bowrider. We took it to Lake Lanier EVERY weekend for the first few years, sometimes on both saturday and sunday. I ended up putting more hours on it than Dad even though I was only in my preteen years. Fast forward to my early 20's, Ended up living on Wilmington Island Ga. and had to have a boat again. Bought a 13ft Gamefisher with a 4hp Mariner. Paid $800. Was great to use in protected back waters, but wasn't stable enough for the girl who eventually became the Wifey. Bought a 14ft Fisher Marine with a 30hp Mariner. Paid $1300 and ran the schiit out of it almost every day sometimes. Wish I never sold that one. Bought an 86 Donzi 18 2+3 (yeah, BIG change) with 350 Mercruiser Paid $7100. Was great for hauling *** (63mph) and making a bunch of noise with through-hull exhaust. Dad talked about selling the old Sylvan and I got sentimental and bought it off him for $2000. He felt sentimental and gave a $1000 back. The wifey and I decided to move to Florida and I had to sell every thing to keep from having to move it, and also the new place didn't have all the room to park all those boats. Sold every thing except for a 90 Kawasaki Jet ski I got in a trade for the Sylvan. The Jetski was fun except everyone on a boat hates you and most jetski folks are pricks. Started reading the boat trader and looked at a couple in the 18-22ft range. After looking at 3 different V-20s, I bought mine for $5100 and sold the Jetski to a buddy of mine. Decided except for the weather, the clear water and white sand beaches I didn't like Florida so we sold the house before the market crashed, and moved back to good ol' Wilmington Island. Since being back I've acquired a 12 ft fiberglass skiff, and the twin to the Jetski I had before, both for free and a 14 ft Mckee Craft with a 50 hp suzuki for $850. Sorry to be so long winded.
