Ok, what am I thinking?  I am supposed to be a sailor.  A rag guy, one of those green nuts that works twice as hard to go half as far.  I admit, it seems strange that I would purchase a motor boat hull.  Well here’s why I am extending my fleet into the motor boat world.

First of all, I love all boats.  I have never claimed not to appreciate a fine example of seaworthy motor driven transportation.  My first inkling of an interest in boating came when I visited the Bay Islands of Honduras way back in the 1960’s.  The fine boats and boat builders on these pristine islands off the north coast of Honduras built with local materials by eye from carved half molds.  They were fine builders and fisherman.  They were great seaman as well.  I admired those husky hulls driven by slow turning diesel engines. They were truly as seaworthy as you can get.  And these guys were the ultimate in seaworthy operators.  They loved their jobs and their crafts.  I was surely in boat builders and marine operators paradise, not to mention being in paradise itself. 

Over the years those remote islands have been discovered by the tourist trade. I warrant that I would be heart broken to see the changes both in the islands and the people.  My love of boats has grown and changed as well.  For some 20 years I have been involved in sailing, principally beach cruising and coastal sailing. Lately, I have develop an interest in river cruising, especially exploring small rivers and estuaries in the southeast.  It quit naturally occurred to me that most of this travel would be motorized, not allowing for sailing at all.  Also, I developed an interest in fishing.  As my retirement looms in the near future and some of the frailties of becoming older beset me, I have seen the benefits of power boating.  Accordingly, when my friend Addison showed me a classic Boston Whaler hull for sail on Craig’s List, I decided to buy.  It is a beautiful 1970 Boston Whaler Nauset hull, unsinkable, stripped of its classic wood center console and seat, but in great shape.  The owner had added beautiful teak bench seats, planing to use the boat as an open fishing skiff with a small tiller steered motor.  Lucky for me, I have Belle’s nearly new Nissan 18 hp long shaft motor that should move the Whaler along at somewhere close to 18 mpg with pretty lean fuel consumption as well.  Later, I plan to rebuild the classic center console and seat, re-powering it with a motor somewhere in the 50-60 hp range as it was originally sold in 1970.

I’ll keep a record of this on this and child pages, perhaps including some adventure stories as well.  All you pure sailors, (and remember to be a pure sailor, you can’t use any auxiliary power except oars), stick with my other pages devoted to sailing adventure.