Power Boating Anyone?

Discussion in 'Sports & Recreation' started by Cody Fousnaugh, Sep 9, 2015.

  1. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    When I was in high school, I spent some weekends with my Uncle/Cousins on their ski boat. I also had experience boating while in the Navy.
    Wife's family owned a cottage on a nice lake northwest of Detroit, Mich.. They had a ski boat and a couple of small aluminum boats. She spent a lot of weekends at the cottage and on the ski boat when she was in high school.

    We wound up buying a 1989 16' Bowrider while living south of Denver, CO. It had a little 4 cylinder engine, but could pull up two water skiers (with full throttle...lol). We mainly used it for fishing and "beaching"/relaxing on the sandy shore at a local reservoir. When we moved to North Carolina, didn't want to haul the boat there, so co-signed it to the Dealer we bought it from. While living in NC, started looking for a full-size cabin cruiser, but found out just how much work it would be to have one, let alone hauling it around. Came here to Florida in early 2009 and ended up buying a 1992 19' Cuddy Cabin w/a nice V-8 I/O engine. This thing can really "get up and go"! Have had it on the local river here, once on the Intracoastal in Daytona Beach and a very short time right outside the Ponce Inlet on the ocean.

    We have found out that we like lake boating much more than boating here. Unfortunately, a lot of the lakes in Florida a pretty shallow. We've been thru two Coast Guard Auxiliary Boating Classes and still don't know what the heck we are looking at as far as buoys and some Warning signs go. We will be darn glad to go back to lake boating in Colorado, when we move.
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    That sounds like it would be a whole lot of fun, @Cody Fousnaugh ! ! I have ridden with family members who had a boat and motor; but never in any kind of a cabin cruiser.

    I had a little pedal boat once, if that counts ?
    It was only a "one-woman power" little boat, so definitely not a very fast one; but it was perfect for me to go fishing with.
    I lived near Lake Mayfield in Washington State, and across the street was a little path that went down to the lake. there was a big old driftwood log there, and I kept the pedal boat tied up to that and chained so no one could steal it.
    When I wanted to go fishing, I just took my pole and tackle box and down to the lake I went. It was a pretty flat boat and no good in the waves, so I stayed close in near the shore; but I could troll along as I fished and sometimes caught myself a blueback (kokanee) for dinner.

    image.jpg
     
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  3. Ike Willis

    Ike Willis Supreme Member
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    When I was about 11-12 dad and I built 2 wooden jon boats. Dad sold the first one but we put the second one about 12 miles downriver in a place called "The breaks". It was a series of ponds and sloughs, all connected. to the Mississippi River by a 50 foot wide inlet. Some had deep holes that was home to crappie and the shorelines were littered with dead trees in the water and tree stumps, ideal bass country.

    We had no motor at first but by the end of summer I had saved enough to buy a used Evinrude 1 1/2 HP trolling or canoe motor. I had more fun watching dad cast lures for bass than I did fishing. When he got one on line he would giggle like a school kid as he battled the infuriated bass.

    We kept the boat chained to a tree among lots of other boats for a number of years. Then, one day it went missing.
     
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  4. Sheldon Scott

    Sheldon Scott Supreme Member
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    I've had motor boats in the past but now I have a two man Pelican boat with a 12v trolling motor and a canoe with 2 paddles.
     
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  5. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    How many of you have owned a boat, specifically a power boat, now or in the past? If not owned, how about having fun riding in one, zooming down a lake or other waterway? What about fishing, skiing or tubing behind one?

    Wife and I were around power boats in our teen years. Her mom had a cottage at a lake in Michigan and the family had a couple of boats, one of them being a ski boat. I've got pictures of her riding on the ski boat a number of times. She loved the boat and the water. As for me, my Uncle had a ski boat and I got to go with him and my cousins whenever I visited them for a weekend. The rest of my experience came from being in the Navy and spending most of my years onboard a ship on the water.

    When we lived in Colorado, we bought our first one. It was a 1989 16' Invader Bowrider, with a 4-cylinder engine. Used it for cruising on local lakes, trout fishing, "beached" it and relaxed on the sand. It was an older, but descent power boat. Kept it in the garage of our house we had then. Named it "Cowboy" for those days I was involved in rodeo. When we left Colorado, we consigned it to the same place we bought it from.

    Our next boat was bought here in northeastern Florida. It is a 1992 20' Celebrity Cuddy Cabin with a 5.7L/350 engine in it. Had it since April 2009 and, like many boat owners, have had a number of repairs done to it that cost. But, then again, owning a motorhome or camper can be expensive as well.

    Currently, we are awaiting the warmer weather here (mid March) before taking it out. It is now in Dry Storage, which has made it much easier on us "physically". A forklift takes it off of a rack and puts it in the water for us and when we return, same forklift takes it out of the water and puts it away. No more "launching" or "retrieving" for us.
     
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  6. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I think I've been on every type of boat except a canoe. The most time boating was when we lived on the Fox River in Illinois.

    The yacht was on Lake Michigan.
     
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  7. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    A yacht, wow. Remember the size? Was it the sailing/sails type or non-sailing type? Did you ever drive it? Sometimes my wife will get behind the wheel and throttle. When that happens, all I can say is "hold on". She hits the throttle, the bow goes up, then comes down on plane and we are whizzing thru the water.
    I've never been on a sail boat or canoe.
     
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  8. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I have no idea, about any specifics of any boats...it was husband's boss who owned it but we were friends with him

    The sailboat was his also...

    He also had a house with and in ground pool in the house.
     
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  9. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Rich dude, hugh? My wife cleans ours. I laugh because she tries to make it look like a new (2017) boat, but can't get the boat, inside or out, shiny enough to look that good. While she is doing the cleaning part, I check the batteries and any other mechanical or electrical stuff I can do. We sure have a lot of fun on it.
     
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  10. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Yes, very rich but sadly he died in his 50's from a brain tumor....money isn't everything.
     
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  11. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Money can mean a lot for people that don't have or have never had it and wished they did. Money can sure make life easier and definitely more fun.
    We didn't pay that much for either of our boats, compared to what some folks pay for a boat. However, the older the boat, the more repair money has to go into it.
    Some people think we are rich, because we own one. That definitely isn't true.
     
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  12. Gary Ridenour

    Gary Ridenour Veteran Member
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    after 4 yrs in the Navy I had trouble sitting in a rocking chair
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Never owned one but had access to a couple of them when I worked for Yar-Craft, a boat building company.
     
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  14. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    My German father came from a long line of fishermen. My grandfather, uncles, and father, (my dad was one of thirteen), worked a string of commercial fishing boats and sold their catches to The Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco. Many of our family moved to the Gulf of Mexico after the war in the '40's. I spent a lot of my childhood working on my uncles shrimp boat, and it never dawned on me that I was working instead of playing.

    My father was taught welding in the navy, so between fishing and welding, and the farming my mother added, we were always able to make a living.

    I got my first and only speeding ticket under the Kemah, Tx. drawbridge at the age of ten.

    I water skied for two years before I learned to swim.

    I raised my children on the San Jacinto river, lake Livingston, lake Houston, and all over the Gulf of Mexico.

    You can get a good family sized boat for about the cost of a couple of family vacations.

    I can't remember not owning a boat of some sort that provided either food or pleasure.
     
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  15. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Living still in Vegas, with it's proximity to Lake Mead, we bought a brand new cuddy-cabin, made by Fiber-Form, 24 feet long, a new experience for sure. It was pretty heavy, had a Ford 302 V-8 inboard drive, 60-gallon fuel tank. L. Mead has two gigantic main bodies, connected by a fairly narrow passage maybe 400 feet wide, with steep cliffs of beautiful color. We ventured all the way in to the second "basin", and I realized it was entirely possible to run out of gas on a lake like that! Once, just floating about, consulting my charts, I determined the lake there was about 300 feet deep. My wife and her sister, then 16, abruptly dove overboard. I was horrified, poor swimmer that I was! Admonished by me regarding the depth, they merely shrugged it off.

    Realizing we were soon to go our separate ways, I advertised the boat for sale. A man stopped by wih his wife, looked it over, and declared he would buy it, subject to a test ride. We dragged it out to the lake, met him with his wife and child, and proceeded to go out about 10 miles or so. Then, abruptly, one of those desert high wind fronts came up, and before we knew it, waves were fearsomely high, 6 feet and more! I started heading back, the waves coming toward us from about 30 degrees right of my intended direction. I steered off course into each wave as it hit, huge amounts of water coming up over the cabin, with the impact of hitting a wall! I thought the boat could break in half. It withstood the pounding apparently without incident. Elmer's child, I forget his age, was sick. I, too, felt sick that the sale was obviously doomed. We made it back in, I backed the trailer into the water, got the boat back on it, and Elmer declared that having witnessed the strength and ability of the boat, he would buy it!

    My one and only boating experience. Frank
     
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