Well we got out on the Cumberland again this morning, away from all the worries and stress of the normal routine work week, miscellaneous brain-numbing coordination and communication issues, and we just did a little boating, as it should be. This is why I love boating so much, you can share it with your loved ones, family, and friends, and when you are doing it, you forget about all the stuff that gets in the way of your fun, when all you're really trying to do is have fun, do the right thing in the first place, and stay the heck out of trouble! Easier said than done
(unless you are a mushroom)
In any case, here is Miss Janet at the helm of the now pretty darn healthy 1966 20' fiberglass Chris Craft Sea Skiff #39 of 80.
The big 327F barked a great sound, many people took note. The harbormaster said he can always tell when it is our boat coming into the harbor. Two former commodores of our yacht club came over and looked the boat over from stem to stern this afternoon when we got back from a long run, and both gave us their unqualified nod of approval. Neither had ever heard of a fiberglass Sea Skiff.
We ran from Commodore Yacht Club (Commodore Corneilus Vanderbilt, as in the Vanderbilt Commodores, the namesake of the club) down to Gower Island, around the island, did a few manuvers for fun, and ran back upriver. It was just beautiful out on the water, overcast and muggy, but once under way, things cooled down nicely. We had intermittant cloud cover so it was very nice to be on the water.
Here are a few photos of Miss Janet at the helm, running around 2000 RPM on a nice steady cruise. I got onto the foredeck for this camea phone photo, and I also hung my head over the transom to get a real nice listen to those twin pipes jettisoning exhaust, water, and that great inboard Chris Craft sound. This is the Chris Craft trademark I remember as a kid, V8 or Hercules, it made no difference. I just love the sound of an unmuffled marine motor barking through a copper pipe. Back when I was a kid on the docks of Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania in the 1950's, I got one heck of a show in between landing a blugill or two. Wood boats of the finest calibre, Chris Craft, Century, Hackercraft, you name it, we had it. I soon began to recognize the really deep tone of a particular Century Raven, which at the time happened to be sporting a BIG FORD FE marine motor probably an Interceptor. That lightweight hull would fly, and it was reported it was the fastest boat on the lake for a period of time. In order to live up to the reputation, it was given a real dose of steroids by the owner, from across the Ford parts counter too. Kids help perpetuate legends like this!
Now for our own legend maker. There were kids in the harbor yesterday oogling all over this boat, and one of them did just what I did when I was his age. Of course, he went back to get a good view of those copper pipes sticking out the transom (and so did our 80-year old ex Commodore, lol). From inside the boat you hear one tone, but from outside the boat it is quite different, and it is also quite different when we're motoring down the countryside too. Part of the fun of owning something classic, with classic sensory signals of all kinds.
Now this is better, a little smile from Janet, who seemed to be really enjoying this as much as I was. These smaller Commanders (or "almost Commanders", as the case may be with this Skiff) sure are a lot of fun. Now we really understand what owning one of those beautiful 23' Commanders must be like.
I've finally mastered the Inland Waterway GPS system, hot rodded with the extra chip. Very cool and fairly well intuitive. Now we're planning on some differnt kinds of cocktail cruises. We still have the 38' Commander which we'll keep now and forever more, to do the serious heavy lifting for dinner cruises, long distance comfort, luncheon anchor outs, cocktail cruises, and those great mid-winter outings with full canvas to see if we can see another white tail deer swimming the river again. This smaller Chris, however, will seat 9 comfortably and we'll be able to run downriver to Ashland City for catfish, or from Cedar Creek YC up to the Cherokee Steak House, much quicker than we can in the bigger boat. It's a nice choice to have, and everyone should have a smaller Chris to supplement their boating habit!
You may as well go classic with that too, there are so many great choices out there.
BTW, did you notice the runabout the other day on ebay being sold for the buy it now price of $60,000? It makes my $3900 wonder all that much more attractive. Yes, it cost me more than that to fix it, but that price included the trailer too.
So many boats, so little time
regards, Paul