What was your First Boat?

[cfelton]

I started with a 16ft. Juniper homemade flatbottom boat with a 3hp Evinrude. My dad found it sunken in the Chowan river, brought it home and rebuilt it. We fished it till he passed in 1980. I kept patching it until it was totaly rotten and scraped it a few years ago. Around 1990 I was given a 37ft. Colonial with twin Chryslers 6cyls. I worked on it for about a year and had arranged to have it pulled to paint the bottom when a hurricane sank it in 25ft of water in Bennets creek in Gatesville. I tried pulling it up to the top and pumping it out but couldnt keep it up on top, so I pulled it on shore with one of our log skidders and scrapped it. I then bought and rebuilt a 1972 Carolina plyboard boat and a new 25hp evinrude, still have it. In March of 06 I bought my 77 v20 with a 170 Merc. Ive spent hundreds of hours restoring the boat ,engine, drive and trailer but now have the boat Ive always wanted.

[bradford]

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.

[bcurling]

My first at age 12 was a 14' wooden boat brand and age unknown I'm too old to remember and it had Johnson 10hp, I think? (gone)
Then came 1973 Wellcraft Airsolt 185 with Merc OB. Heavy boat but very dry (gone)
Infinity 19' 1992 w 140 hp Volvo I/O. Very nice fishing boat. Built by the Global Yacht Co. as a launch used on their 78' yachts. (gone)
GlassMaster 1989 w/ Johnson 65 hp (gone)
Glen-L Console Skiff 16' wood (I'm currently building this one on my shop)
Landau 1983 aluminum 16' w/Mariner 40 hp (current)
1983 Wellcraft V-20 Steplift w/170 Merc I/O completely restored at purchase. (gone but not forgotten. I am currently on the prowl for a replacement. That was by far, the best boat I every owned).

[eight]

The first boat I owned was a 12' avon inflatable I got for free. I added a 10hp seaking to it for $100 I think. I fished with that one a couple times a month. It could run the whole weekend on 3 gals of gas.

2nd was a Glen-L 18' skiff with a 70 hp nissan. It was used at least every week for a couple years.

3rd's the catamaran I have now, trying to sell it.

Somewhere in there I got a 14' aluminum semi-v I believe is still by one of my lakes. Also got a stand up jetski a few months ago.

[BuilderFL]

My first boat (bought by my Dad new) was a 1970 Glastron V-176 in avocado with a 115 Evinrude. Great all around boat!

[Franco]

I was partners on a 70's 20' Seaox with a 115 evinrude, then I had a 13' Boston Whaler then I got the V20 and Now I have a McKee Craft CC

[Monkey Butler]

In my teens during the 70's my Dad had an 18' Penn Yann just like this.





He had it on a mooring in the Charles River near the Mass. Ave. bridge. That was a different era in Cambridge before it became the peoples republic. I don't remember the exact fee to get a mooring but it was cheap by today's standards, something like $20. It originally had a 50HP Evinrude but one day we went to go out and noticed the boat floating a little odd. Turned out somebody had stolen the OB right off the boat while it was in the water! That was the end of the mooring and the season. Over the winter he found a 90HP Johnson that really made that boat move.

Best memory on that boat was watching the bicenttenial fireworks in 1976 with Arthur Fiedler leading the Pops concert. When I was old enough to drive he let me trailer it where ever I wanted and eventualy he basically gave the boat to my brother and I. That lasted several years but sometime in the early 80' my brother ran aground and busted the bottom up. Without me knowing about it the boat eneded up in a bonfire on Whitehorse beach in Plymouth MA on the night before the 4th. I still get worked up thinking about that.

My mom worked at Harvard U. and one of the benefits back then was that they gave employees and their families access to the recreational facilities. This included the sailing club so from high school to my early 20's I sailed O'day dinghies and Lasers there. They also had a Soling but it was rare to get to use that. It was weird, a poor city kid hanging with Harvard students but some of them really used to look forward to me showing up because I had, uhh, local knowledge of access to supplies of recreational drugs.

After I moved west of the city in the mid 80's I had at various times:

A 12' aluminum skiff with a 8HP motor.
A Super Snark sailboat.
A canoe.

Five years ago my ex-boss gave me his fathers old 13' Whaler with a 25HP Evinrude.

Three years ago I bid $750 on a 17' Wellcraft/Manatee on ebay. Here's a picture of the two together.



Two years ago I bought my current boat for $2600 then sold the 17' for $1200. Also that year I gave my ex-boss the Whaler back. Long story why but I'll just say I miss that boat.

That's it. I'm happy with the 250 right now,however I would like to replace the Whaler with something similar but that's not in the budget right now.