How Did You Fall In Love With Boating?

[Knot Salted]

I was intending to reply on Scott's thread "What boats did you grow up with", but realized that I was a bit off the subject. This has been such a strong pull to me, and I'd like to hear this side of it from others. I apologize if I am duplicating earlier discussions.



Long Island, NY 1957 - 1976



My Grandfather Alfred Eberhardt "Beepa", bought his first boat, a 1956 20ft Davis. I do not have a pic handy to upload, buy that was my first experience up til I was five years old. Beepa was the only one in our extended family ever to have a boat.


Every August, we would spend two weeks with my grandparents in Malvern. The boats were kept in the creeks of Freeport.

The boat that I really grew up with was his second new boat, a 1962 25ft Norwalk Sedan. A truly beautiful boat as were most of the day. Beepa added enclosed cooling for the Chrysler Marine slant six engine and a perfectly matched fly bridge around 1963-64. I remember hearing about the projects. Ebby II's exhaust note sounded like a Humphrey Bogart movie. Flat out wonderful.


We fished a lot - my first love in boating. (for me, if you couldn't fish from it, it wasn't a boat) Any time at anchor I always had a rod in my hand . A day in the summer of my 10th year, we had stopped in a quiet spot called "Mary's Hole" in three feet of water to have lunch, and I caught a really nice Fluke for dinner. This on a piece of ham that I had pulled from my sandwich, and stuck on a flounder rig! If you fish for Fluke, you'll know just how unlikely that is to happen. (wrong place, wrong water, wrong hook size, wrong bait...) Beepa and my dad pooh-poohed me from inside the cabin, and then went into a panic to pull out the net when they saw that I was yelling the truth...



On cruises, we would often see and wave at Guy Lombardo in his fabulous 41 footer. It roared beautifully. https://www.heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20070518/news/605213941/SH



If not fishing, we would typically end up at Short Beach for the day - our favorite destination, where I swam, collected hermit crabs, scraped starfish and blueclaw crab off the docks and pilings, or walked across the highway to Jones Beach for some ocean fun. I loved those days more than I can possibly express.


We lost Beepa, and the boat when a sixty year habit of smoking finally took him down. He was still boating a little that last summer of '76. I was 19, and had finally traveled there early in the season to help scrape and paint the bottom. In August, I rode my Honda to Long Island from San Fransisco to see My Grandparents cut their 50th wedding anniversary cake, and spend a few days. We did not get out on the boat.


If the pics post, I am the 11 year old on the fly bridge of Ebby II. She was always docked near where the photos were taken. The boat looked better every year, as Beepa was very fussy about her, and had talent and patience for such things as brightwork.


It took me many decades of small boats to finally realize my dream of a livable boat kept at a dock. At age 58 we purchased Knot Salted, joined TF, and have been back in the love of this kind of boating since. She is taking good care of us, and we see ourselves as her caretaker so that she may be passed on for many more to enjoy.



It took far too long to get here, but hope we have some duration in this almost holy endeavor.


--Jim

 

[ScottC]

Massawepie scout camp, near Tupper Lake, NY. Canoes. Rowboats. Sunfish sailboats.

 

[Comodave]

I don’t know. I just wanted a biat since I can remember. When I was about 8 I would get the classifieds on Sunday and call people about the boat they had for sale. Every now and then some would take time and tell me about the boat...

 

[AusCan]

My love of boats goes hand in hand with my love of the outdoors and nature. I grew up in the interior of British Columbia where most of the rivers and lakes were pristine and undeveloped. I'd spend my summers exploring the area, fishing and camping. My brothers and I would build rafts from whatever we could find. We'd float down a river until it would break up in the rapids and then hike back home. I upgraded to a cheap vinyl dinghy and then built a variety of other small water craft including a paddlewheeler made from 44 gallon drums and an old bicycle, old canoes and kayaks that I'd get for free and patch up.
After moving to Australia I got to know and love the great southern ocean. I soon realized that that if I wanted to explore, I would need a vessel a bit more substantial. Over the next 35 years I worked my way up to a boat that was safe and capable.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: When I got on a boat that came equipped with a tall, handsome, smart, funny man who I love with all my heart.

 

[Russell Clifton]

I was forced into it. When I was about 2 days old, my mother brought me home from the hospital in St. Petersburg to the sail boat she and my dad were living on. Wasn't to long before mom got so home sick she made dad sell the boat and they bought a 1941 Chev. and we drove back to Washington State. (1947) With no where to live my grandparents brought their boat down to Everett Wa. and we lived on that until dad built us a house.

After he built and sold three houses he had enough money saved to build us another boat, this time a 30 foot cruiser. We lived on that boat in the summer months in the San Juan Island's and BC. My grandparents would join us with their boat ( a 32 foot that dad had also built) and we would cruise together. When I was old enough to operate my own boat I picked out a plan and dad and I built a 14 foot run about that we would tow behind us.

So it's not my fault I'm this way!!

 

[GFC]

My parents got me a rowboat when I was 5 and I spent countless hours on it. It was my first love and I loved being out on the water with it. I got a 7.5 hp motor at age 7 and life was good. Around age 11 I got a Sailfish sailboat and life got even better. I knew what speed on the water could be like and loved every minute of it.

I left home at age 15 and didn't own another boat until I was in my 30's. It was my first "real" boat, a 20' open bow with a 5.0L. I kept it for about 10 years and from then on each boat got bigger (no 2-foot-itis in my future). I went from 20' to 33' to 58'.

Life is good.

 

[bnoft]

Like Mike above this, I got my 1st boat at 5 or 6. Dad and I, mostly dad, built a plywood 8' pram in the basement. The plan was to take it to my grandfather's house on the Potomac. I rowed that thing up and down the shoreline at Sandy Point; unlike Mike I never got an engine. Pop, my grandfather, bought a 15' Aluminum boat with a 25 h.p. Johnson and we fished whenever I was down. That aluminum boat morphed into a 15' Whaler when I was about 12/13 and I ran that til he died in '70.
Being on the water in a boat is both relaxing and adventuresome, nothing like it. I've hiked the AT and part of the Rockies and enjoy the mountains but there's just something about the water, particularly salt water.

 

[kthoennes]

I was around lots of boats as a very little kid but my father liked go-fast power boats that I always found scary, noisy, bouncy and unpleasant. For me it was a wooden Blue Jay, a 14' open cockpit sailboat, usually launched from Chester or Deep River and then down the Connecticut River and out into Long Island Sound, or up to the Goodspeed Bridge. Bought that boat my senior year in high school and sold it a few years later to pay college tuition. Bare feet under the hiking straps, leaning way out over the side, getting the water to juuust kiss the side rail without dumping it over. Now those were good summers. And a few girls really liked it too.

 

[syjos]

I lived about half a mile from a lake and often watched boats. Met a kid that lived on the lake and his parents took me out on their 18' Flattie sailboat. Got hooked and crewed for anyone, anytime until my first boat at 12 or 13.