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Any wonder we love old boats

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  • Any wonder we love old boats

    Is it any wonder I keep going back to Craig’s list daily, in search of that "perfect free boat?" Or maybe just see if that over priced dime-a-dozen jon boat finally sold. Maybe find that $50 great looking old kicker motor that just needs a little tinkering. Is it any wonder Northwest Classic Boat Club is my homepage?

    God, I love my boat!

    Lord how I love my boat!

    That leaky old boat of mine, smelling of fish guts, gas fumes and fresh varnish, always needing fixing or upgrading, old gas-guzzling, way-to-big-for-it 2-stroke smoking up the boat ramp, and looking like a relic from a Lucky Strikes ad. She does turn heads though, like a fine old lady who never lost her class, her figure or her looks.

    You can tell somebody still takes care of her, and she too in kind, takes care of us. For 16 months my kids dreamed of the day we would be on the water. How many times we drove up and down Marine drive looking at the river and all the places we would go. The disappointment last summer when we found the motor was a dud. The anticipation through the winter as I rebuilt that engine.

    This summer it all came together, the motor, the boat, the Oregon State Marine Board and the DMV,… and we were on the river. My daughter couldn’t stop smiling and taking pictures on her cell phone. My boy watched every move I made and every control I worked. We were blessed with sunny skies, kind water, and blackberries from an island in a river.

    I really lucked out with that boat, and those kids. I hope they’ll remember the lessons the boat taught us and pass it on to their kids. The secret of happiness isn’t in having what you like, but in liking what you have.

    How I love that boat.
    Attached Files
    '59 Clippercraft, 35 hp Evinrude

  • #2
    Boats and Family Boating Experiences

    That's a great story Brian! Glad to hear you got the boat all together and a suscessful maiden voyage. Boats and family go together. Great memories and I'm sure that I too love boats to the degree to spend 20+ years working on the water and another 20+ years restoring one boat.

    I took three of my four kids to Princess Louisa Inlet, in B.C. in 1996 in my Glasply. It was really a magical experience. Princess Louisa Inlet is surrounded my mountains and has a sort of holy or surreal feel to it. I remember motoring out of the entrance and into Agamemnon Channel early one morning. Kids asleep in the V-berth. Flat calm, doing maybe 1800 rpm. So peaceful!

    Or going fishing with my dad, grandfather and great uncle to Neah Bay in 1953! 16 foot rental kicker boat with a 16 HP Johnson and a 4 HP Martin kicker! Saw my first Orcas or Black Fish as we called them then.... Vivid memories!

    Great memories and hope my kids can afford to own a boat in their lifetime...

    Look forward to seeing you on the waterways..

    Tim
    Captain Tim (McSkagit) Jones 1959 Skagit 31 Saratogan

    http://www.closeencountersecotours.com

    Pay it forward.......take a kid for a boat ride

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    • #3
      Great Read...I'm glad that your children appreciate what they have. I can almost hear Alan Jackson singing in the background....

      "When Daddy Let me Drive"

      It was painted red the stripe was white
      It was 18 feet from the bow to stern light
      Secondhand from a dealer in Atlanta
      I rode up with daddy when he went there to get her
      We put on a shine, put on a motor
      Built out of love, and made for the water
      Ran her for years, til' the transom got rotten
      A piece of my childhood will never be forgoten

      It was just an old plywood boat
      With a 75 Johnson with electric choke
      A young boy two hands on the wheel
      I can't replace the way it made me feel
      And I would turn her sharp
      And I would make it whine
      He'd say, "You can't beat the way a old wood boat rides"
      Just a little lake cross the Alabama line
      But I was king of the ocean
      When Daddy let me drive

      Just an old half ton short bed ford
      My Uncle bought new in 64
      Daddy got it right cause the engine was smoking
      A couple of burnt valves and he had it going
      He'd let me drive her when we haul off a load
      Down a dirt strip where we'd dump trash off of Thickpen Road
      I'd sit up in the seat and stretch my feet out to the pedels
      Smiling like a hero who just received his medal

      It was just an old hand me down ford
      With 3 speed on the column and a dent in the door
      A young boy two hands on the wheel
      I can't replace the way it made me feel and
      I would press that clutch
      And I would keep it right
      He would say a little slower son
      Your doing just fine
      Just a dirt road with trash on each side
      But I was Mario Andretti
      When Daddy let me drive

      I'm grown up now
      3 daughters of my own
      I let them drive my old jeep
      Across the pasture at our home
      Maybe one day they'll reach back in their file
      And pull out that old memory
      And think of me and smile
      And say

      It was just an old worn out jeep
      Rusty old floor boards
      Hot on my feet
      A young girl two hands on the wheel
      I can't replace the way it made me feel
      And he'd say
      Turn it left, and steer it right
      Straighten up girl now, you're doing just fine
      Just a little valley by the river where we'd ride
      But I was high on a mountain

      When Daddy let me drive

      Daddy let me drive

      Oh he let me drive

      It's just an old plywood boat
      With a 75 johnson
      And electric choke

      Chuck in Santa Barbara
      1957 Cadillac w/1947 Scott-Atwater 473
      1965 Alpex w/1964 West-Bend 45
      1977 Thunderbird w/85HP Merc
      1964 Montgomery-Ward W/1978 Johnson 15

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      • #4
        one of those days

        Having a daughter who has left home to go out into the work world call home and say "Dad, I now understand why you yelled at us on the boat all the time! We went out yesterday with two couples and the owner of the boat on Lake Powell. The wind was blowing on to the dock. I was the oly one who knew anything about boats or operations!!! The other girls were USELESS!!!"

        They had a great day and I had and even better month. This is a thing to remember forever. Dad really knew something afterall!!

        Often we never know what we have imparted!

        '60 G3 w/ Merc 700

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