So how did you become a boater?

paulswagelock

paulswagelock

Well-Known Member
Oct 25, 2010
2,203
pa
Boat Info
2018 SDX 270 OB 300 Verado
Engines
Verado 300
A search didn't turn anything up, so forgive me if this has been around before.

1982 I was in college and dated a girl whose family had a severely underpowered 21' open bow boat. I had never been on a pleasure boat before, and joined them at Raystown lake in central Pennsylvania.
Later that summer I bought my first 14' 40hp outboard closed bow boat. 35 years and 8 boats later it is still my primary passion for recreation.
 
I was 8 years old-went with my parents to an uncles cabin the the Catskills- he had a rowboat tied up to a dock was bored so i got into the boat and started to use the oars and the lines came loose - before you knew it -- alone and not knowing a thing I was in the middle of the Lake- had to figure out the technique to row and get to shore -figured it out-the adventure stuck with me -I learned a lot that day-got in some trouble ( Dad wasn't too happy)-welcome to boating 102 - when I retired I bought my own which i have today-from rowboat to 320 Sundancer- the adventure still is alive!
 
My grandmother lived on Lake Chelan in Central Washington State. When I was about 7 they took us for a boat ride and I couldn't get enough. I wanted to be on the water all the time. At 15 I talked a neighbor in to giving me an old wood runabout if I fixed the engine....an old 30 HP Merc Mark IV or something. I figured out the float in the carb was stuck. Fixed it and had my first boat. Growing up as a kid in the Seattle area during the height of the Unlimited Hydroplane era was all it took for most of us. I'm now 67, been boating for 52 years and owned 9 boats from 10' to 52'. I know that I will continue boating as long as I am still physically able to do it safely.

There are people that own boats and there are boaters....I'm a boater!

Boating is my drug of choice!

Shawn
 
Born and raised in boating. Pics of my mom pregnant with me on their 35ft boat in the early 60's. So I know nothing more that salt water boating. After they sold thier last boat, 43 sportfisher in the late 90s I had to start my own road from small to larger boats. I love every moment on the water. My favorite spot is the engine room. I love how clean and pristine I can get everything. Everyone just shakes their head on how clean it is. I blame my dad as I was the bilge rat from 5 to 15 years old. I learned a ton then and I that carry with me today.

Mark
 
I grew up in MI in a family that had a cottage on Lake Huron/Saginaw Bay. We got a 9' row boat when I was about 6 and I spent many hundreds of hours rowing it around. I got a motor for it, and old used 7hp Evinrude, when I was about 9 and felt like I was the king of the seas.

We got a sailfish when I was 11 and spent many hours sailing on the lake.

Fast forward many years and I had a 16' Hobie Cat for a few years then got the "Big D" and had to get rid of the Hobie.

I bought my first real power boat, a 20' Reinell open bow with a 5.7 in it and really started learning how to be a boater, not just a boat owner as NorCal said above. I kept that for about 12 years and sold it and it still looked like a brand new boat.

My next boat was a 330 Sundancer that I had for several years until it got totaled by a BUI. I liked the boat so well I bought another one almost exactly like that. I had that boat until early 2010 when we traded it in on Beachcomber.

So now we have Beachcomber and two 13' Boston Whaler Sports, one a 1981 we keep in AZ and a 2010 we keep in WA.

Boating kinda gets in your blood, doesn't it.
 
I was born in a city up in the mountain at 2,450 mt over sea level so no access to boats at all. From child I always liked building models both airplanes and boats so I made a flybridge, 2 ft long with electric motors. Years later I moved overseas and on a weekend we went to visit a mall in Caracas, Venezuela ( coastal city) and there was a show of Searays; this was back in 1997 and we went inside of what to me was the nicest thing ever..... galley, head, dinette, etc. never imagining that 20 years later I would own that very boat, a Sundancer 290 as my first boat, not bad. As for the flybridge, just a matter of time to own a 400 Sedan Bridge..... I'm a boater too, very proud to be one of the most active members in the marina going to the sea almost every weekend, doing most maintenance myself and learning something new everytime.
 
Oh man, thinking about this makes me emotional. It was my father and grandfather, both were like me, a little nutty when it came to the lake and boats. My grandparents had a summer cottage on a small lake in the mountains of NC. As a small kid they had the Chris Craft that is in my signature, a Glastron runabout and a 10ft skiff with a 9.8merc, a Sunfish and an Old Town canoe (the old canvas construction type). We spent a lot of time there in the summer - water skiing, sailing, running the boats around and around that little lake like we had never seen it. Some weekends I would run almost two 6gal tanks of gas through that 9.8 on the Sears Gamefisher. And my grandmother and that canoe, she would have you paddle for miles if you would, I still can feel the splinters I would get off the wooden rubrail on that thing. Over the years the boats changed, we all got older, my brother and sister lost interest, but me, my father and grandfather were the threesome. We could waste hours and and days just messing around the lake and boats. So I guess i inherited the illness - they are both gone now, but if I had a time machine, that is where I would go.

This is the Chris Craft, first boat I ever drove, had a shifter in the floor and the throttle in the middle of the steering wheel.
img023.jpg
 
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New here waiting on delivery of a nice '06 - 260!

...born and raised boating! first boat was an 8' Sandpiper with a 4hp Merc! good times around the marina with other kids and their dingys!
 
When I was about 10 my grandfather gave the family a 12' Sears Game Fisher when he could no longer use it. It had a Johnson 3.5 HP outboard. I was able to use it all summer long on a lake nearby our house.

Soon after I saved up enough for a 10 hp Evinrude and now my boat went fast. I loved the speed and the feeling of the wind in my face. That was all it took. I've owned a boat ever since.
 
What a great thread...

When I was about 7 or 8 my dad had a pond built on our property. As soon as it was full of water I was always down around and in the water. It used to scare him to death. When I was 10 he bought me a 10' pontoon boat with an electric trolling motor to play around on in the lake. Used it for a few years until he became sick when I was 13. He passed when I was 16 and I lost interest. I got my 1st job soon after and always worked when not at school and any free time including weekends from that point on. I had a friend that always asked me to go to Lake Erie with him and his family for the weekend. I didn't go because I worked any chance I got. Finally skip forward into my early 20's. I finally gave in as I was burnt out and need to take a brake. I took off a weekend and went to the lake for an extended weekend with my buddy and his dad's boat. It was a 20' Thompson and I was hooked. It was live at 1st wake. The following year at 22 I found a local 24' 1982 Sea Ray Sundancer and spent every weekend going to Lake Erie and I couldn't wait for Friday to roll around cause I had the itch. I had that boat 4 months and knew this was something I was going to continue to do. I found a 34 Sea Ray Sundancer and never gave it a second thought and signed papers. She had just over 300 hours and needed cosmetic work but mechanically she was solid. That was 11 years ago. I have almost 800 hours on her now. I've traveled as far as Lake Huron twice with her. She has been a wonderful boat. In 11 years I can count the number of weekends I have missed between April and October on one hand. I still get anxious on Fridays and can't wait to climb in the car drive the 1.5 hour trip to my pride and joy. I can't imagine life not boating. The winter months are always the hardest and I plot and scheme for the next upgrades or upcoming trips for the following year. I too am a BOATER and wouldn't want it any other way. I always get the questions from my co-workers that "you're going to the lake again?" my response is always I can't wait to get there....
 
Grew up around lakes and rivers. We had a ski boat and a fishing boat, most of the summer was spent on the water. Had a jon boat with a small outboard when I was 12 that was mine.

My cousins had a Sunfish sailboat. The four of us (age 10-12) would load up on that sail boat and spend all day sailing around the lake. Jumping off when we got hot and swimming.

Fast forward a few years of not being on a boat anywhere. Wife and I got back into boating on a lake near here. Went through a couple of bow riders, one of them a jet boat.

Went on a charter trip with some friends to FL Keys (42DB) for 10 days. First time boating on Salt Water coastal cruising. That was about 10 years ago.

Oh my goodness - that trip totally "hooked" us. Have been active since. Totally changed our plans for retirement.

Mark
 
I have always been on and around boats but never owned my own. Last month I finally purchased one and have been out on it almost every weekend. My wife had never been on anything smaller than a dive boat and was very apprehensive about buying a boat. Now that we have one she wants to be on it every weekend. My 4 and 1/2 year old wants to go everyday!
 
Like a lot of you it started with my Dad. We lived in OH and he loved boats. When I was little we had a canoe he would not let me take it out on my own until i could capsize it, right it get back in and paddle to shore. Once I mastered that I was always out in it. Eventually we bought a 16 foot Lyman with a 25 hp motor and trailer for $25! We stripped the boat to bare wood and refinished it and went the the engine over a winter. Our family had it's first ski boat. From there we went to and 18' Thompson.
By the time I was in High School Dad had taken up sailing so so did I. He bought a 22' South Coast and kept it on Lake Erie. I got sick of North/East Oh winters and moved to AZ. - My other bad habit was motorcycles. - I had and still have a 1946 Indian Chief. - I missed boats... My then wife and I went to a small lake near Nogales & rented a canoe. Next thing I know I bought a 17' Venture sail boat. When my Dad passed away in 1983 I brought the South Coast to AZ. We had been taking the Venture to Mexico on the Sea of Cortez and the South Coast went too. Eventually we kept it at Roosevelt lake.
Once the "Big D" happened I bought a Flicka a very bullet proof compact of shore sail boat and spent 2 years cruising the Baja and Mainland Mexico.
After that I got busy with work re-married and went a few years with out a boat. The new wife and I went back to the same little lake - we had a toy hauler - for a weekend and rented you guessed it a canoe. De-Ja-vue??? We soon bought a 14' inflatable with a 20 Hp motor. We took it in the toy hauler everywhere including Mexico.
As retirement looms the great loop started to call. We wanted a bigger boat so we sold the trailer and inflatable and bought a 94, 270 Sundancer. We've kept it in the water at Roosevelt Lake. We took it to Mexico last May. There is a link to a you tube of the Mexico trip below.
Were going to bring it home next month and start trailering it to Lk Powell San Diego and back to Mexico. There may be a trawler and the Loop are in our future. If not we will haul the Sundancer to where ever we want to go and have fun.
Yep Boating is in my blood.
 
Crack a beer or pour a cup of coffee....mine was a long and winding journey.

During my childhood and teen years, I figured I must have died by drowning in a prior life because I had a love hate relationship with the water--loved to be in pools, in lakes, etc., but always experienced high anxiety, including near hyperventilation--that kept me from being a great swimmer or being able to just let go and enjoy the experience. I could only ever be in water where I could touch the bottom.

Fast forward to my late 20s, when a friend invited me for a float on his bass boat, then regularly invited BFF and me out on his Donzi for lazy days lolling in the sun and bobbing in the water. Well, actually, THEY bobbed in the water while I stayed safely on the boat. Both were patient about my fears, never teasing or attempting to throw me in against my will, and both were excellent swimmers (personal lifeguards!), so over the span of two seasons I graduated from wearing a life jacket and hanging onto the ladder, to wearing a life jacket as a diaper and staying tethered to the boat with a dock line....to swimming across party cove with no flotation of any kind. (I still have the anxiety, it just doesn't typically induce total panic.)

And then in 2000 I rode behind a friend on his PWC, just one time. And then in 2001 I bought my own PWC. And an anchor. And installed a towing package on my Tercel. And spent the first two days learning how to get off and on in the water, and how to maneuver at various speeds (gouged the hull trying to ride it onto the trailer!). And spent every single sunny weekend day after that on the water, on the hook, reading a book and listening to music. I'd get home from an out of town work trip on Friday, do laundry, repack my suitcase, and mow the lawn all in that evening, so nothing would stop me from being on the water first thing Saturday morning and as long as possible on Sundays. I declined invitations to daytime events, including Titans tailgating/games, because all I wanted to do was enjoy the water and the sun and all the butterflies and turtles and ducks and heron and occasional water snake that would visit me in the little cove where I hid from the world.

It soon dawned on me I was a boater stuck in a PWC body, and within a few years I started planning how to make a big boat part of my life. It's never been practical to have a truck/SUV, so I knew it would be slipped, meaning a much bigger budget. But I'm a patient woman, and in 2006 I met a bunch of boaters who adopted me and my PWC wholeheartedly into their crew (the Jell-O shots magically appearing from my stowage might have influenced them a bit). While I got everything organized to buy I learned a lot from them, both about boating and what kind of vessel would be the right fit.

I expected to start kicking props in 2011, but a personal health issue sunk that plan, so I got started in earnest in 2012, and in 2013, I bought and christened If You're Lucky.

And four years later, I still am. Lucky, that is! I owe a lot to the friends who helped me learn to control my water anxiety, and to the adoptive family through whom I learned to buy my second boat first.

Patience remains a virture....I've started the multi-year plan for buying my next (last) boat.

Because I am, indeed, a boater.
 
When I was a kid in the mid 70's my grandfather had an old wooden boat that I went out on a few times (although I don't remember much of it). Late 70's my dad had a Glastron 15' speedboat with an 85HP Johnson. I was about 8 or 9 and drove it around a little. Mainly when he would go get the truck I would cruise around the ramp waiting for him. Tried skiing and some tubing. He sold that and in my teens my mother and her ex boyfriend bought about a 15' tri-hull (late 80's by this time). I had mentioned to my wife a few times about buying a boat but she didn't have much experience with them so it wasn't high on her priority list. Finally after the kids graduated from college we decided we needed a hobby so started looking at boats. Bought our 250 June 2015 and now looking to move up.
 
I blame my parents for this expensive addiction. We had a 16' Dorset with a 45hp sears outboard on it when I was growing up. At 14, my dad bought me a 12 Sailfish blowboat and I loved it. I bought the old Dorset from them at 19 years old, and have had 2 foot-itis. ever since. Now looking to buy my 10th motorboat, 14th boat overall, ....a pocket cruiser would be nice.
 
JimmyDubai said:
I was born in a city up in the mountain at 2,450 mt over sea level so no access to boats at all. From child I always liked building models both airplanes and boats so I made a flybridge, 2 ft long with electric motors. Years later I moved overseas and on a weekend we went to visit a mall in Caracas, Venezuela ( coastal city) and there was a show of Searays; this was back in 1997 and we went inside of what to me was the nicest thing ever..... galley, head, dinette, etc. never imagining that 20 years later I would own that very boat, a Sundancer 290 as my first boat, not bad. As for the flybridge, just a matter of time to own a 400 Sedan Bridge..... I'm a boater too, very proud to be one of the most active members in the marina going to the sea almost every weekend, doing most maintenance myself and learning something new everytime.
Click to expand...
Glad to have you as a Boater, too!
 
My father owned a boat and when fresh out of college I bought my first.
 
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