Well, I was just a kid, Dad took us to canoe lessons. There was about 5 of us. Mom, She was just glad to see us out of the house.
The instructer, taught us how to tip a canoe over, that was very fun.
Gosh, I was the middle kid. Dad says, "Chuck, you and me, we are going to look at a canoe. He found a 17' Forester, fiberglass, bright blue. Ole Dad says, "Son, what da ya think." I liked it, had a motor mount built into the transom. "Looks great DAD!"
Dad bought it, we had a couple of wood car carriers, you know, those things that clamped to the gutter on top of the car. We tied er down.
Dad took all five of us experienced canoer's, down to the river, we paddled and paddled, all 6 of us.
Dad says, "who wants to go canoein", I said I'd go. My sisters and little brother, they skeddadled.
On the way to the river, Dad stops, buys a little 3 horse 1960 johnson outboard from a friend of his.
Only had to paddle if ya ran out a gas, me and Dad, did a lot of fishing, all to ourselves.
I used the canoe, alot. Brought it to Texas. My folks moved a lot, Dad always said I was pretty resourceful, I always was able to find em. I still have that Johnson outboard.
Anyhoo, I get to Texas, gotta license a freakin canoe, if it has a gas motor. So, I go to the boat place, they sell me a big blue battery, and an electric minnekota. I take my buddy, fishing, load up the canoe, battery, trolling motor. Scared to use up the battery, so we paddle, mostly. It's toward the end of the day, said, "hey, lets try this motor out", spent the next 2 hours, hydro planing, in da canoe, oh yea, no more paddling.
Bought a real boat, used the minnekota on it too. Same big blue battery, only I dropped it once, knocked a hole in the corner, patched the hole with putty, took some acid out of an old battery, worked like a champ....for a long long time.
Weelll, bigger is better, minnekota now has a 36 volt, more efficient model out, oh lord, 36 lbs of thrust, better batteries, last all day. New microprocessor controlled, batteries last twice as long with this new technology, paired up with the new gell cells. Who do I pay, I got one of those bad boys,
Three great big, heavy batteries, did'nt last long, about a 1/2 day, The marina in Garland Texas, they don't talk to me, no more, bunch of idiots over there. I got my money back, fancy dancy charger fried all three batteries, 1st charge.
Big blue goes back in my boat, one battery, outlasts, 3 big batteries. Had that battery, probably 6 or 7 years, fished a lot, kept the boat in the water at a marina, fished probably 2 to 3 times a week.
Still have that first minnekota, good little trolling motor, the canoe, did ya know, ya should'nt pull a canoe with a 100 horse boat, specifically, if its a fiberglass canoe, we had a lot a fun that day, the old forestor, she lays on the bottom of lake. Rescued all passengers.
chuck
