I promised to share some excerpts from my book here to get you excited about getting your hands on a copy. Here’s the second in that series I’ll title “Time to Upgrade.” I hope you enjoy it!
I owned a fiberglass runabout after the original sailboat I had. I’m not sure it could be considered an upgrade from the sailboat, though. After I got married, we moved to a houseboat on the Columbia River at Jantzen Beach. The idea then was that I’d buy an old boat that needed work and tie it up to our floating home and fix it up. Despite how much work I put into it, that boat was never reliable. It had the incredibly unfortunate feature of running like a champ at the dock and then about thirty minutes into our day on the water would just stop. It couldn’t be started again until it cooled down, regardless of what else was tried. Hitting the height of my frustration, I even paid a boat shop to fix it up, which went against my “do it yourself” nature. It sat and sat at the boatyard waiting for the guy to get around to it. It not only seemed like an eternity to me, it actually was an eternity. When I eventually did get it back, it still wasn’t the fun and reliable boat I wanted.
After a couple of questionable experiences with fiberglass boats, when the opportunity to purchase a wooden boat came to me eight years ago, I jumped at the chance to get out of that intermediate and get closer to my passion. Having my first wooden boat made all the difference in the world in my enjoyment of the water. It wasn’t perfect, needed some work as all wooden boats do, but it was work that I loved doing. You just can’t beat the look and feel of a classic wooden boat.The boat I got, fortunately, came to me in excellent condition. A Tollycraft “Roustabout” model manufactured in Kelso, Washington in 1961. It had been well maintained and had recently received fresh varnish and bottom paint from someone who saved it from the shop floor at a local boat seller where it had been for quite a while nestled amongst the fiberglass behemoths. The 6-cylinder Mercury was smooth and dependable compared to anything I’d ever worked on before. It was a true pleasure to own this craft. I wanted to be in it, floating on the water, every minute I could.
Image courtesy of tolly-classified.com
Watch this space for more sneak peeks at some of the book while you’re awaiting delivery of your copy. If you haven’t ordered one yet, head over to www.PortlandBoatTours.com/book to take advantage of the discount (only until March 10th).
