My first boat. Post yours if you have it.

[boatsail]

When I was a kid, instead of a red rider bb gun. My dad got me a set of plans. We built it over the course of a month or two and got it in the water. This was the first boat that I owned. Kind of nostalgic going through the photos, so figured I'd post it.

The sunfish in the photo is the first boat I single handed as a young child. That day this summer that my father was in the sunfish and I was in the Cal, he literally sailed circles around me that day (not windy enough for my boat) and won't let me forget it:-)

[Hudson Force]

I wish I had some old photos of my first boat, but long ago my parents house burned to the ground with many photos. Here's the oldest Phot I have from 1974. It's my third boat, but one that we were aboard for thirteen years,- from '73 through '85.

[barnakiel]

The first boat that was actually mine was an old well beaten up and decommissioned Cadet (sort of like a Mirror).

Hard chine plywood hull that went on plane only if really pushed, wooden mast, pale orange cotton sails.

b.

[bobofthenorth]

The 2nd picture is my first boat and it isn't a very good picture but its all I've got. Cedar stringers over plywood frames covered with canvas - from a drawing in "Canoes & Canoing" by Percy W.Blandford. Completed before I was 10 years old. The other one is a design from Popular Mechanics. My best friend is the crew on the maiden voyage and he built the same boat. We're probably about 12 in the picture.

[Panope]

My father and I built this as a tender to Panope when I was about 10 years old. It is a "Midge" built from plans in S.S. Rabl's "Boat building in your own back yard". Dad later cut it in half to make it "nest" and fit on the cabin house for is trip to Mexico. It was a great dinghy.

Steve

[Pelagic]

Don’t have an actual photo, but this gives you the idea
….. Twelve years old, newly emigrated from Scotland into the vast wilderness of Canada’s Great Slave Lake, where the family would rejoin our lumberjack father.

Saw this craft four days later, abandoned and sunken up one of the many small creeks that drained the forest into the lake. It had been there for some time, probably stranded after a spring flood, left to rot and gather debris from subsequent seasons. A wooden built clinker rowboat about 18 ft long, looking solid, heavy and abused.

First thing I noticed was that the level of water inside the craft was higher than the surrounding waters in the creek. Knew that was a good thing and a salvage plan began to formulate. The plan was simple, spend the rest of the day cleaning and bailing out the boat by hand, returning next day from the campsite with some rope and an axe. Drag and float the boat approximately 2 miles down to the beach, clearing away any fallen logs or debris in the way. No problem!

My brother Desmond, two and a half years older, was my best and only friend in this Strange Land. Des listened first with amusement then anger, because he knew his young sibling would try to do it alone. Finally he only agreed because he had promised our mother to look after his younger brother.

As planned, she floated that first day and didn’t she sit pretty in the water! Des begrudgingly agreed, despite the two of them being intimately introduced to the swarms of large mosquitoes and a new breed of carnivorous horse flies, unknown in Scotland. Those things took chunks!

By the end of Day Two, we had made good progress, covering about half the distance to the lake. Sometimes dragging the craft over fallen logs, other times, re-sinking so as to slip under the obstruction.

Marching home to the tune of “Ye take the high road and I’ll take the low road.” Our spirits were high. The goal was almost in sight and both were having fun.

By the end of Day Four only about another 100 yards had been covered, as the debris became thicker and the creek developed many sandbanks, forcing them to dig small channels with a borrowed shovel.

Raspberry bushes opened them up and the swarming insects finished them off.

By Day Six, we could go no further as the creek turned into a shallow delta covered with debris.

I could not help but feel guilty as Des worked stoically, never saying a harsh word. Then help in the form of the tough men from the logging camp came. In the absence of our father, they had been watching these two young Scottish lads, learn the reality of the Canadian bushland.

Cynical humor had turned to admiration and in about one hour six men had dragged the craft to the lakeside beach.

Day Seven, glorious launch day, good conditions. With some borrowed canoe paddles and lifejackets the lads ventured about 100 yards away from shore and turned upwind into the light chop. At first the small amount of water was manageable but then the seams bled from everywhere and she filled quickly.

Years of sand and mud caulking being washed out. They sank!

Des laughed and said a few words about his young sibling’s intelligence and legitimacy.
At the time, the irony of an older brother making those legitimacy claims escaped the young captain. He was thinking about how much he had to learn.

[Tellie]

My first sailboat was a cheap plastic molded 9' tri-maran. My folks had a small house on six acres bayside on Long Key in the Florida Keys. I sailed that all over the place down there. No registration, no life jacket, no anchor, no charts, no hassles from the local water cops. Just a gallon milk jug for water and a brown paper bag full of P&Js, mask, fin (singular), snorkel and a Ron Popiels pocket fisherman. But I was a spoiled kid. I had the Red Rider BB gun too.

[denverd0n]

No pictures of my first boat--that was a canoe that my father and I built. My second boat (the first sailboat) was a Hobie 14. That was a present to myself at the age of 23, after getting a promotion and substantial salary increase at work. I do have a few old photos of that, but I don't think I've scanned any of them into digital form. Probably should do that. Then my third boat was a San Juan 23, and I don't think I have any digital form photos of that either.

That gives you an idea of how long ago I owned those boats!

[Ram]

Heres my first boat, me standing- I think I was 8-9 at the time- in Jupiter F- Learned a lot at that time & had a lot of funl

[bloodhunter]

My first sailboat was a Penguin built as a kit in 1949. All the photos of the boat (and most everything else) were in my parents' house when it burnt down 30 years ago. Sailed it on thge Hudson River near Nyack.

[Mr B]

My first boat was the roof of a FJ holden turned upside down, at 13, I could not even swim, But I had fun rowing it up and down the creek at the back of the house,

[cookwithgas]

I was a big "Popular Science" reader as a kid. I ordered a set of plans for a "Home-made Catamaran" and built it. The sail was made from blue tarp and the battens were held in place by duct tape (as per plans). This picture is from 1980. I married the girl in the picture and she still puts up with me. I'm the skinny guy on the left.

[boatsail]

Originally Posted by cookwithgas

I was a big "Popular Science" reader as a kid. I ordered a set of plans for a "Home-made Catamaran" and built it. The sail was made from blue tarp and the battens were held in place by duct tape (as per plans). This picture is from 1980. I married the girl in the picture and she still puts up with me. I'm the skinny guy on the left.

Tellie had a great first boat story, but I think this one tops all so far....the woman in the pic turned out to be your wife! Was it because of the boat or in spite of:-)