Two stroke Thursday: watercraft edition

"WhiskeyGolf" (whiskeygolf) 06/25/2015 at 09:46 • Filed to: boatlopnik, two-stroke thursday

0

3

My family picked up a cottage property in the late 90’s, and the best part about it was that it came with a boat. I was 11 years old at the time, but that didn’t stop me from doing a local boating course to obtain my “Pleasure craft operators card” just coming into effect in Ontario. The boat was a mid-late 80’s Sunray Cavalier bowrider like the one in the foreground (but not that exact one). It leaned heavily into turns and sat so low in the water that it became a dangerous operation to pick up skiers with anyone in the front.

It was powered by a crappy 70 hp Johnson Seahorse of similar vintage to the one on the left. That thing sputtered on start up, and a few years in we realized the cooling “pee stream” wasn’t actually operating so it’s surprising it didn’t melt before that.

The boat had 2 20L fuel tanks you could switch between so once in a while the boat would surge forward then die, at which point I had to crawl to the back, switch the tanks and squeeze the fuel bulb for a few seconds.

Eventually my dad decided to save some money by not properly winterizing it and storing it behind the building, which meant that during the following spring it didn’t even get into the water while the marina “waited for a part”. We decided to sell it that fall at a local “buyer beware” auction, but not before leaving the plug out while moving it between trailers and getting water up to the seats. I think pulling it out of the water caused our Pontiac Transport’s diff or transmission to spit black fluid all over the gelcoat...

Fortunately !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and I couldn’t be happier.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Meatcoma > WhiskeyGolf 06/25/2015 at 11:34

1

Thanks for the read. It reminds me of my parents’ boat. I too remember swapping tanks and squeezing the ball till it was tight.

My parents bought a boat when I was about 5. I can’t remember what manufacturer the boat was but it had a 75 Javelin(now Johnson) and it was probably a 16’, it was red with metallic flakes and we fished out of it a lot and that is the boat that my dad taught me to ski behind.

My mother sold it after my father passed away.

Once I was married I bought a new boat a 1995 Rinker 180. I bet we put thousands of hours on that boat. We sold it about 7 years ago and recently I’ve started looking again, no thanks to your post. I’ve found some promising boats and my wife agrees.

Thanks for the memories!

911e46z06 > WhiskeyGolf 06/25/2015 at 14:38

0

Don’t hate on the Seahorse. I have a pair of ‘83 50-horses on my kelp beds boat. Super reliable, and I can run around all damn day for like 8 gallons of gas.

911e46z06 > Meatcoma 06/25/2015 at 14:39

0

My bad, replied to the wrong post. You know, like an idiot.