What inspired you to get into boating?

When i was a youngster growing up,my father was an avid boater. His passion was harpoon swordfishing off the Mass coast. i started with him when I was seven and it still burns deeply.

One of our last conversation, before his death involved discussions about boats he would like to own. There is no place i would rather be then on the water and on a boat.

John

I grew up 300 miles from saltwater but by the time I was in the 6th grade I had read every biography in the school library related to seagoing explorers. Career and family kept me away from the sea but a business deal landed a 26 foot sailboat in my driveway. This provided 4 years of inland boating and occasional cruises in the San Jaun Islands.

Sailing is my hearts desire but the Admiral has no interest in sail and will certainly not go forward on deck. However, eight years ago when the Admiral decided I needed some form of diversion from my job stress we decided on a power boat. Thus came "Budds' Outlet" and it has been a great mutual enjoyment and diversion. The Admiral has now turned her powers of investigation towards our retirement boat. We are both looking forward to summer months in the Canadian gulf islands and inside passage. Who knows, maybe someday we will make it all the way to Skagway!

As a child my dad and I often went to watch the boat races in our home town, dad came from a boat less family but always seemed attracted to the water. When he had a chance to pick up an old class c racing hull that was past its racing days dad and I drove over to the place on a Saturday and loaded the old hull in the back of the truck. I was as happy as any six year old could ever be, I was a new boat owner!. I spent summers "racing" around the world... fending off pirates... exploring new places... all from my back yard on a old boat sitting on a pair of saw horses.

Dad knew how I was taken by the boat bug and kept looking for the next boat and when I was 14 we found a old crackerbox race boat that was for sale... one of the boats we had watched racing. The cracker became our first real boat... one that we actually floated ( if you dont count the summer I dug a big hole in the lawn... lined it with plastic.. and floated the first boat.... dad was less than pleased ) At sixteen dad signed the cracker box over to me and my official boat addiction was started.

The boat addiction has lasted for over 35 years, my count in boats owned has hit the over 25 mark.. it has gone from flat bottom drag boats to ski boats to sail boats to trawlers... and combinations of all types at the same time. Boats have carried me to ports afar, across both the Pacific and Atlantic... It has been a strong bond for our family and one I believe my two girls will also continue on with in their lives
HOLLYWOOD

as a side note.. I am writing this sitting on board after spending a great 4th of July as a family aboard... watching fireworks.. enjoying the summer..priceless!

What go me into boating

My boating life began in my 30's when I would drive to Montana and flyfish. The best water was accessible by boat so I bought a yard sale raft, made a pvc rowing frame and fished. The frame creaked and cracked and should have probably blown apart before I replaced it with a real rowing frame. Years of floating and reading water hooked me. Then one year we took a a spring vacation with our German exchange student living with us. She wanted to see whales so we went to the San Juan's in April to camp and go whale watching. The God's watched over us with great weather and we went out on a small whale watching boat on a sunny spring day. My wife looked at me and we both said "We could do this!". One the way back home we stopped at Dagmars in Everett and climbed aboard boats for 3 1/2 hours just trying them out.

2 years of internet searching, reading and educating myself and we bought a 19' Starcraft Islander. Loaded it up for a trip in the San Juans and quickly realized it was too fast, not enough livable room but a good fishing boat. Took it to Northern Vancouver Island,Telegraph Cove later that summer and caught springs. Wow, the Broughtons were right there and we wanted to go. Right place, wrong boat. I just finished reading The Curve of Time and thought a boat like that would be nice. So we went back to the drawing board. Finally found a good starter boat, an Albin 25. Quickly realized I knew very little and we took a 3 day bare-boat charter course to learn driving skills. That was my best move in beginning boating, it gave me confidence and caution at the same time. Open heart surgery to remove a benign tumor in my wife's heart had us rethink some things. We sold our small herd of Morgan Horses we had been raising and took to the water. We took our Albin to Princess Louisa and almost every point in between Anacortes and there. Loved that boat. Same story, not as big as we wanted. So, our friends talked us into co-owning a boat which is where we are now. A 1977 Willard 30. Went to Desolation Sound last summer as our breakin cruise. 30 days aboard.

What we like about boating is it is an extension of our younger days of solitude in wild settings. Once on the water we are on our own, or so it feels. Love the adventure plus love meeting others and seeing other ways people are out boating. Sorry for the long post.

Keith

This is a snippet from a post on another board about how we got into boating...

~~~I'm no stranger to Oregon. Our honeymoon (1970) was a tour of 49 states in a Ford Bronco, to decide where we wanted to settle. We chose Grants Pass Oregon out of all 49 states (didn't get to Alaska until '05), eventually moving to Ashland. Those were the days and today we still consider the Rogue Valley our real home.

Ironic, it was boating that made us leave. I'm a born traveler...just love being on the move. From Oregon, we explored the West Coast by car and motorcycles. My wife and I each had 175 Hondas...hers was a CL175 (read road bike) and mine was an SL175 (read dirt bike). On a wild hair one day, I said to my new wife, "Let's ride these bikes to the East Coast" figuring I'd get a firm "Hell No!" and get it out of my system.

She said, "I can be ready in 2 weeks." And so off we went, over 7,000 miles, each on our own tiny bike. Had a blast.

About a year later, there was a huge gas scare...remember the rationing? I put extra tanks on the Bronco and we figured we'd make one last cross country trip before the gas ran out. On that trip we met a freind in Charleston SC who was in the process of buying a sailboat. We returned home determined to travel by sail after the gas ran out.

Two small sailboats later, we'd run out of inland lakes and were ready for bigger waters. The Pacific however, scared the daylights out of me with it's bars and long distances between harbors. We answered an ad in Sail Magazine for crew on a sailboat out of Syracuse NY, heading for the Caribbean.

We learned through a month or two of correspondence with the owner that there were 12 couples vying for the position, and with my limited sea experience I knew we'd have to do something drastic go get aboard. We sold all our stuff, listed our $6,500 house with a rental agency and drove the Bronco to Syracuse uninvited. I knocked on the fellow's front door, introduced my self and my wife and told him we were here to accept the position. He said he hadn't offered me the position and there were 12 other couples in the running. I spun around with an outstretched arm, encompassing the front yard and smugly inguired, "We'll where the hell are they?"~~~~

Anyway, that's how we got our start in boating.

jeffnick gets my vote for best story!

Years ago I used to do a lot of night fishing in a bay south of Houma, Louisiana.
One evening we tied up my 23' Grady white an oil structure waiting for dark, a trawler (shrimp boat) converted for recreational use came over and anchored near us. They turned on the music, fired up the BBQ pit, broke out a bunch of beer, and had a great time waiting for the evening bite. They stayed out at anchor while we had to make the trip back in in the dark. I decided then to look into that type of boat, when I retired I bought a Camano and four years later the Monk 36 I now own. Strange enough I very seldom fish out of my trawler.
Either my Dad or I have had boats since I was 8.
Steve W.

My Dad built our first houseboat on some floating barrels before I was born. We had an old ski boat with a 35 hp engine! Later we had several different ski boats over the years. While in college, I bought my first big boat, a 33 foot wooden chris craft sea skiff that needed tons of interior work. Sold it soon after running out of funds and bought MY first ski boat, a malibu skier. Went through several different ski boats, stingray, ??, mastercraft, then bought my current Uniflite 36 Sport Sedan this past March! Interior needs updating but love having another big boat!! I'm 44 years old so buying an old fixer upper was the only way to meet my budget.

Boydster said:

jeffnick gets my vote for best story!

Click to expand...

Had a few requests so more here... The first few paragraphs are same as posted above.
One More Time Around: The Early Days

hollywood8118 said:

As a child my dad and I often went to watch the boat races in our home town, dad came from a boat less family but always seemed attracted to the water. When he had a chance to pick up an old class c racing hull that was past its racing days dad and I drove over to the place on a Saturday and loaded the old hull in the back of the truck. I was as happy as any six year old could ever be, I was a new boat owner!. I spent summers "racing" around the world... fending off pirates... exploring new places... all from my back yard on a old boat sitting on a pair of saw horses.

Dad knew how I was taken by the boat bug and kept looking for the next boat and when I was 14 we found a old crackerbox race boat that was for sale... one of the boats we had watched racing. The cracker became our first real boat... one that we actually floated ( if you dont count the summer I dug a big hole in the lawn... lined it with plastic.. and floated the first boat.... dad was less than pleased ) At sixteen dad signed the cracker box over to me and my official boat addiction was started.

The boat addiction has lasted for over 35 years, my count in boats owned has hit the over 25 mark.. it has gone from flat bottom drag boats to ski boats to sail boats to trawlers... and combinations of all types at the same time. Boats have carried me to ports afar, across both the Pacific and Atlantic... It has been a strong bond for our family and one I believe my two girls will also continue on with in their lives
HOLLYWOOD

as a side note.. I am writing this sitting on board after spending a great 4th of July as a family aboard... watching fireworks.. enjoying the summer..priceless!

Click to expand...

Great post, Hollywood!