What boats did you grow up with?

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I grew up on a 1965 36' Pacemaker and then my dad sold that and got a Pearson 26 Weekender. Then I spent 4.5 years working on a few cruise ships.
 
1946 Richardson 25ft sedan cruiser made in Tonawanda NY
1965 Lyman 25ft soft top sleeper made Sandusky, OH
 
Growing up in the '60's and '70's, my father had numerous boats, most of which bedeviled him with mechanical issues. He worked a lot and just didn't like the tinkering necessary to keep a boat running in saltwater.

But, we had a 17 ft. MFG with a 20 hp Johnson that we shared with my dad's brother's family. It was just big enough to carry our family of three kids, and it always started and ran well. And it was well used by both families.

Two lessons learned from the MFG- simpler can be better, and boats need to be run.
 
Apparently I was deprived as a child. The closest I got to boating was playing on my dad's friend's boat that he kept in our barn during the winter. Went for a sail on it at around age 5. Went to camp for a few years and learned to row and canoe. In boarding school, I did a little sculling, but preferred being the crew team rigger and coaching the one sculler. Fast forward to my late 20s, bought my first boat (charter boat), 22' Sea Ox. 4 more charter boats followed that. The first pleasure boat (other than 2 kayaks) that I bought was when I was 55 (see avatar). Apparently being a "Born Again Capitalist" will do that to you.

Ted
 
Growing up in the PNW Grandpa built Steel hull tenders in his pasture. So us grandkids always got to go out a few times before they were rigged and sold off Dad always had a boat or two. His first cabin boat was a Reinell 24'. It was possessed or something, always breaking down, always a major crap show. Then around 89 he bought a Mirage Cabin Cruiser , I loved that boat, new, fast, clean! And it never had any problems.
 
We weren’t around boats until our early 40’s

Catalina Capri 16 ft
Pearson 26 ft
1965 32 ft Islander wayfarer
Outer Reef 32 Trawler currently
 
My dad ran a charter boat which I deck handed on when in 2nd grade.

Then a Scottycraft, about 39, sportfisher.
Then 48 Pacemaker sportfisher.
Then 42 Bertram, Hatteras, etc.
I ran an offshore supply boat for a semester, 24/7.
The overtime paid all of college and a few toys.
Raced catamarans all over the world, but wife loves this trawler.
 
No boats until our brand new 22' Catalina sail boat in 1988. Sailed for 5 years and traded her in for the 34' Marine Trader trawler in 1993.


Every boat show I've attended makes me appreciate her even more.
 
In my mid-teens my father (a WWII B-17 co-pilot) purchased for me a gliding-craft lesson out of Fremont, CA. My instructor could hardly believe I'd not flown before. Owing that to several years of sailing with a tiller (stick) on a 28-foot sloop and sensing the vessel's performance.
 
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I Grew up on a 24' runabout with a small cabin.
My father was a preacher on the west coast of Vancouver Island and instead on a car, we had a boat.
Of course I remember very little as I was 6 months old at the time.

I spent the first 15 years of my life with family on a 42' Bill Garden designed full displacement trawler.
The "Seascape". My grandfather built the interior on his days off and after work. Mid ship, Single Gardiner. Two cabins, two heads. Two Helms, A beautiful design.

We owned/own;
Windsurfers
Stand up paddle boards (Hey!! they count in my guesstimation)
FG Canoe
Cedar Canoe
Lunds
Shallow double V power boat
Canoe with sail and pontoons!
Davidsons
Lasers
The precursor to the International 14, cedar striped Sailboat.
14' Zodiac with a 30HP outboard!!!
37' Pacific Trawler.

Hows them apples?
 
Built my first boat, a canvas covered kayak at age 11 in 1951 from plans from Mechanix Illustrated. Used salvaged wood from orange crates from behind the A&P. Learned to sail on a Comet in 1952 in Ocean City, NJ. Later sailed Sunfish in Cam Ranh Bay Vietnam while recovering from major surgery, then sailed an H-28 in Japan. Raced off Sandy Hook, NJ in the '70's on a big boat. Bought my own 30 foot Lapworth in SoCal then graduated to a 42 foot wooden Ketch. Later a Catalina 36. Now I stick to chartering in BC.
 
I usually don't chime in on these posts, although I do enjoy them (mostly), but I'm feeling nostalgic, having just put my 100-year-old dad in skilled nursing today, and the topic triggers some happy memories. Dad loves the water. A WWII and Korea navy veteran, competitive swimmer and avid boater, he water skied with me on his shoulders when I was a baby with Mom at the helm of the 1950 Chris Craft Runabout. A few years later, he surprised Mom with a Chris Craft cabin cruiser. I remember the only night we slept aboard before Mom told him we couldn't afford it and he had to take it back. We had the runabout (I wish we still had it) until he got a new 1964 Johnson tri-hull in-board/out-board, which eventually became my boat. But there are three boats that were very special in my relationship with Dad. The first was a circa 1950's Grumman alum canoe in which we taught me to fish and duck hunt. The second was a Sea Snark a sailing dingy kit we cladded with fiberglass together in the garage in the mid-60s. He taught me to sail with that boat. And third, was an Abaco Dinghy with a 35hp Johnson outboard. One of the Man O' War boatbuilding families made it for him in appreciation for saving one of their children (a longer story). We lived on the cay that summer. Dad would take me to the boatyards and together we'd watch some of the greatest wooden boat builders practice their craft. Dad had other boats after I left home, and I've had several different boats since, but every time I step on a boat it evokes these memories of messing around in boats with my dad.
 
This post is just a place holder - so I don't loose the link and can enter a boat-filled post later. Really cool thread! I read everyone... so far!!

Ain't boats GREAT???!!!!!! :thumb: :D
 
I built my first boat ... sort of.

Grew up spending my summers on Cuttyhunk. My cousin and I told our parents "we're gonna build a boat and sail it around the island" (we were probably 10 at the time). In between sips of their Bloody Marys the Parents said "That's nice, have fun". We lashed together a bunch of driftwood, stuck a couple barrels under the mess so it would float, and stuck on a mast and sail from an old Snark. We told our parents "Boat's built, we're sailing around the island!". Between sips of their Gin & Tonics they said "OK, you be careful out there". We launched our monstrosity, hopped on, got into the waves, and the boat blew apart into shrapnel. We swam to shore and told our parents "Our boat busted up and sank and we swam to shore". Between sips of their Old Fashions they said "Oh my, what an adventure!"

I'm actually lucky to have survived those Cuttyhunk summers!
 
First experience was on day-rental runabouts on Raquette Lake in upstate NY. Later, my dad and I built a 10' rowing/sailing dinghy. Then when I was in high school, dad bought a 1962 Owens Sea Skiff, 22'. Spent loads of time with my friends on that boat.
 
From before my birth in 1936 until about 1940, my dad had an "unlimited 13" centerboard sailboat. Unlimited meant as much sail as the boat would carry. There are photos of me on the boat from age 1 month on. He Built a 6' lightweight row boat of plywood which was used as his dinghy until 1977--40 years! In 1939 he purchased a semi derelict 26' sailboat, with heavy oak frames and Port Orford Cedar Planking. She was hard chine, fin keel and arch bottom like a Star boat. The rudder was outboard, and the 5 hp 1932 Evinrude outboard was set in a well just forward of the rudder, offset to Starboard. That boat was rebuilt during WWII, and I learned about wooden boats. After the War we Built an 8' centerboard sailing dinghy which was my first boat. I began skippering my dad's boats in races when I was 13. During Med School, I needed a boat diversion...first an 8' pram, then a 13' cold molded plywood "Wolverine", with a 25 hp outboard, which we water-skied (slalom) with. Next a 15' ZinCraft made of mahogany plywood with a 35 hp Evinrude. When I returned to Calif. I bought a 26' Owens Sea Skiff and a couple of years later a Columbia Defender 29' sailboat--and my first adventures in Baja Calif. in 1963.
 
12yo - 13 whaler
16 yo - 23 seafarer Sailboat
18yo - 25 Hunter Sailboat
26yo - 30 Catalina sailboat
28yo - 1972” 21 Classic Whaler
38yo- 26 GROVERBUILT
NEXT? Albin trawler. (Hopefully)

Just want to add spent 13-18 year old working my pops custom commercial lobster boats.

Everything but the Groverbuilt and the 21 whaler were salvage boats. (Hence why I had sailboats when I was young, could not pay for gas or a motor, lol)

What did my pop have as a kid? PBR or Patrol Boat, Riverine. Lol. (Compliments of Uncle Sam)
 
As a kid in 60's, 10' wooden rowing punt.
Then 9' Boston Whaler sailing dinghy with 5 hp evinrude.
16' Cobia runabout as a teenager in 70's - 90 hp Johnson.
O'Day 222 day sailor with 9.9hp Evinrude in 80's
Pursuit 2350 centre console with Evinrude 225hp in 90's
Pursuit 3250 Offshore with twin Evinrude 250hp in 2003 - still owned and used.
PDQ Antares 44 catamaran for cruising (Power is 2x Yanmar 3YM30) - dinghy Achilles 12' with Yamaha 25hp 2 stroke.
 
While in Cuba, where I am from, and on the year of 1939, when I was 8 years old and the war coming, my father had to sell his Luscombe airplane and deciding to try sailing he bought an old, wooden Bahama gaff-rigged sailboat. He learned to sail and I learned to keep the boat dry by bailing constantly, but we both loved it so in 1944 father commissioned a 27' Seabird Yawl built, which we finished and started sailing in 1945. On Easter week 1946, preparing for a one year circumnavigation of Cuba father had a brain stroke and died. He left me with Alfin, our Seabird Yawl. For obvious reasons (15 year old captain) mother sold Alfin and we then bought a small, one-design sailboat called "Snorky" which I sailed for years. Work made me stop owning but I still boated all the time.
Go forward to 1960, lost everything in Cuba and immigrated to USA with three kids, a wife and $5.00 in my pocket. Started working on a boat manufacturing company in Little Rock Arkansas and got a 10ft. dinghy we were building for Sears Roebuck. That is what started a large fleet. If we count the boats we, as a family have had since 1962 the number is 53. Being in the boat design and manufacturing business, you can imaging. My three children have had boats by themselves ever since, my daughter home-schooled her three children by circumnavigating the world for eight years, my sons have raced the transpacific, and countess other races all over.
1989 I bought a new Brewer 44 sloop rigged vessel which I named ALFIN II and navigated her 66,000 miles in the 25 years I've owned her. Due to age, etc. changed to an Eagle 40 Trawler named ALFIN III which is fantastic and just last week sold her and bought a 24 ft. Newcastle Launch named ALFIN IV to gunkhole around Pine Island Fl, where I live until I reach the coming old-age. That is it--80 years of sailing and motor boating. If my grammar is faulty, please excuse it--I'm Cuban.
 
My boating history (I'm old)

Aluma Craft 14 foot runabout with 7.5 Evinrude (my father’s)
Class A Runabout hydroplane with ? hp Mercury outboard
Lightning (on loan)
BayViewer board-boat
Lafitte Skiff, 30’ shrimp trawler with 275 hp Chrysler V8 (my father’s)
Lone Star 13
South Coast 21
Silhouette
Gulf Coast 20
O’Day Mariner
Custom wooden 28 foot Maine Sloop
S&S designed Weekender, 35 foot, 1938 sloop
Catalina 25
Tartan 34 (for 20 years)
Cape Dory 10 (current)
Luhrs Alura 27
Key West 17 (current)
Monk Cape Classic 30 trawler (current)
Herreshoff America 18 catboat (current)
 
420 sailboat. 27611 was the hull number. First boat “out of the blue”

Raced all kinds of stuff. Snipes lasers Lightning’s j24s. Trimaran names “the third turtle “ that raced on OSTAR. C and C 36. Islander Peterson 40. Rainbows. Lots of rainbows since I taught at Annapolis Sailing School.

The sailing school had a hatteras 36 sport fish that I dearly loved operating. Especially since they paid me!!!

Windsurfers

Other power boats

Well craft 19

A nice center console

Bayliner classic 215. Current power bot


And my current sail boat. 1962 Alberg 35

Current dingy. Dyer 12.5.
 
Art said:
This post is just a place holder - so I don't loose the link and can enter a boat-filled post later. Really cool thread! I read everyone... so far!!

Ain't boats GREAT???!!!!!! :thumb: :D
Click to expand...

Amen Art!
 
First boat?
12ft birch bark canoe - no wait that was the second one when we moved down to tree line. The first one I can remember was seal skin freighter canoe my Granddad made
 
Rotted wooden boats abandoned on the riverbank -two boys bailing -one boy rowing. Then first owned boat -12 foot StarCraft see scamp with 3 hp ancient Evinrude motor. Followed by 15 foot silver line Tru-hull with 70 hp refrigerator hanging off the back. Followed by 20 foot sea ray with 188 MerCruiser outdrive. Followed by 33 foot Carver with twin 270 V8.(ugliest boat afloat) Followed by 40+2 Ocean yachts trawler with twin 160 Perkins diesels. Kept for 26 years and still miss it
 
My best memories were of a 10ft aluminum John boat with a thousand year old 2.5hp outboard. We named it Old Nelly. I paid $100 in high school. Missing half it’s rivets and constantly leaking. Patched up with tubes of JB Weld!

My best friend and I took it out countless times into storms, surfing down 4-6ft waves in Tampa Bay.

Thank God we were at least smart enough to wear life preservers.
 
My father had a 14' PolarCraft jon boat with a 6 hp Mercury on it, that I first drove alone when I was seven years old (imagine that today). Our home was on the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi and growing up we lived on that river. (if you have ever seen the movie "Mud" with Matthew McConaughey; that was our life running the river in our jon boats; way before we were old enough to drive!). I was a Boy Scout and our troop had a Sunfish we could borrow which I sailed a lot.

But, I was always drawn to the coast and the ocean and so as soon as I graduated law school, I only interviewed on the coast. I got my first real job down there and was scheduled to start on February 3, 1985.

On February 2, 1985, I bought a Cape Dory 25D sailboat. My wife thought I was insane! :D
 
OMG, OMG, OMG!!! Water/Boats - Boats/Water - Where do I start!!!

1st memory was aboard a canoe about the time I was learning to walk. I clearly recall mom carrying me onto the canoe and then me holding onto the edge and pulling my self up to hang over the side and put my fingers in the water... At that second I was hooked on loving water. I even recall the large tree we were going under and it's shade-edge on the water. Have no idea where we were or anything else about the day... but... I sure do recall loving the look and feel of that sparkling water my fingers were splashing in!

Next clear group of boat memories was dad's 16'er with tiny cuddy cabin and early 1950's 25 hp Johnson. Many, many days during some years on that little baby! More stories than this post can hold. One standout memory I will tell ya - - - While dad was working in the engine at dock one day [this was before floating docks were much available], I was about 4,... anyway: Tide was low and boat with dad aboard was floating way down below the main dock. Soooo... I leaned way over the dock's edge to peer at a blue-claw crab hanging onto a piling. Leaned too far, fell off the dock's edge into water to rear of the boat. Clearly recall dad firmly grabbing me and hauling me aboard. I recall being pretty shook up and can remember the feeling as I went head over heals and hit the water!

Next family boat was a 23', small cabin, single screw - Chrysler Crown straight 6 engine, 1948 Chris Craft Express. We got that baby while I was in grade school [1958 or 59]. I cut my teeth for boat restoration on that one. We had it for quite a few years and it needed lots of improvements. Loving to be aboard that boat I was always ready to help dad work on her. Our family used that boat nearly every weekend and took 2 to 4 week jaunts aboard during dad's summer vacations. Cruised to Block Island many times aboard that little Chris!

Some Other Boats - not necessarily in order of ownership [unlimited stories for each!]:

- 6' "Pixie" dink with 1.7 HP Neptune Mighty Mite o/b
- Center board sailing dink
- 10' pram with 3 hp Johnson
- 13'3" Boston Whaler with 18 HP Johnson, then a 20 HP, finally a 40 HP
- 32' Johnson Brothers cabin cruiser
- 38' custom flybridge, sedan, raised deck sportfisher
- 21' Ski boat inboard
- 18' Ski boat I/O
- 31 Uniflite sedan sport fisher inboard
- 14'8" Crestliner 4 seater, full cover canvas top with 50 HP Johnson
- 34' Tollycraft Tri Cabin, Sun Deck

Also worked in "boat yards" on many types of boats during my teen years on South Shore of LI, NY. Spent lots of years on other's boats too. Hauled lobster in Penobscot Bay Maine.

Water n' Boats! = Boats n' Water! Simply Fine!! / Simply Wonderful!!
 
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I grew up on the beaches of Port Dover ON. My first recollection of being in boats was with my father going fishing using a maybe 18 foot from a boat livery, a one-lunger, with a fly-wheel start. Sometimes would start in reverse.
Next was on a similar length out of Turkey Point - drifted through the weed beds catching a string of perch.
Early teens - I had an A Class Hydroplane. 9.9 Merc - flew across the water.
Family Added a 16 foot Crestliner with 75 hp. That was a big engine in 1960
Family Added a Sea Flea, 9.9 Merc, to the A Class
Family Added a Sea Snark - lateen rig
Family Changed Crestliner to a Grew I/O 150 hp
Family Changed Grew to a Doral I/O 200 + hp (could kite fly with this one.)
Somewhere in there, family added a C&C Corvette 1968. Raced with my father for years - then day sailed with him.
I bought a 24 Shark in 1970 - raced extensively sold in 1982
Bought 17 foot Peterborough 110 hp 1992 to "chase" my son while he raced his Laser. Sold in 2004.
Acquired the family Corvette in 2001. Sold her this June. (52 years - one family - good boat)
Last fall acquired a 1989 Inland Gypsy 32, FL 135 hp. New learning curve.
Next week adding a CL310 Highfield dinghy 9.8 hp.

I think we maybe on are on the last one.

All have a great summer.
 
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