What got you into boating?

[pullmytrigger]

Been around boats my whole life but in little 3 or 4 mile inland lakes in Cottage country where a 17ft Sidewinder with a 150 was king......Then in my 20s a friend bought a 24ft Bayliner cruiser.....One weekend we took some girls out cruised around and were anchored on a hot sunny day.....the sun, the bikini's, the drinks, the swimming were all pretty cool and I remember thinking that this boating life was pretty damn good!....I like it!.......but something was missing......

Then like a half hour later a Donzi and a Baja rumbled by our spot about 100ft off our bow, maybe 45 mph, the thru hull sounds of their V8s hit me like a bolt of lightning......HORSEPOWER!!!!....THATS WHATS MISSING!!.....I said to my buddy "I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!!......." that was THE moment for me, no question.

 

[Griff]

My Grandparents semi retired at LOTO in about 1972. In fact there old house on the main channel overlooks the current Shootout course near the finish line. My parents figured they needed to have a boat to have something to do when visiting them at the lake so they bought a boat(16' Crestliner). I spent a lot of time at LOTO as a kid and loved it. Parents sold the boat and my grandmother died. Grandpa sold everything and moved back to Omaha in the early 90's. He's is still around and now is 94 years old.
I decided that I missed LOTO and boating and finally pulled the trigger on my own and got my own boat about 14 years ago. Its now 4 boats later and more hooked than I ever dreamed I'd be.

 

[ufix1]

I was born in it!!! Its more than in the Blood..!
My first boat is a 9ft inflatable with a 9.8 hp ... NOt an offshore boat but I am crazy about them ... Today I am 15 and whats next... I am building from scratch a new 8ft. cat.!!!!!!

 

[MikeyFIN]

Father took me boating as a newborn we always spent the summers boating until I met my ex. Then I started in the seascouts and competing in sailing at 7yrs. First nationals at age 10 which I led singlehandedly and hit the national news ( I was beating 5 yrs older with a wide margin). The youngest full sponsored sailor also at age 11.
But my heart was at Motorsports so tried karting and motocross for a while, probably because I saw and heard a 35 Mistress at 10 yrs old cruising the bay.
Still sail as a 2nd skipper (downlegs) in an offshore sailboat when time permits.

So I got an early hook on powerboats and american muscle cars ( Dad had one since early 70´s).
Drag racing, road racing and especially Stock cars got me hooked bigtime so don´t tell me there´s not an anti boating cure.

Miami Vice did some influence definitely but I followed also offshore racing a lot before that. Actually IMO the boat scenes in MV was lame.
The deaths of Didier Pironi, Mark Lavin and Stefano Casiraghi made an lasting impact.
At the same time the ex Miami Vice boat ( yes the centerfold boat with the girl on deck) that was given to Don Johnson was imported here and I had a chance to be in it plus a friends 46 Cougar and they definitiely got me hooked and forgot sailing for 10+yrs but not boating basics which many powerboaters seems to lack, if not all but a great amount, of skills on.
The happy 80´s yuppie years actually did it for me regarding powerboats as Money was everywhere to be made and no drug running needed overhere so there was quite an amount of powerboats here.
Also the Team Notareal at the time was racing Class1 and later the team Finnscrew won it 1992 just as the recession hit.

 

[MikeyFIN]

Miami Vice, definitely.

Love of all the different Ford Engine opportunities with boating.

An issue of Hotboat, circa 1988 or so that had an Eliminator 234 Edge write up. Ultimately I started out with a Warlock 24' Euro.

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offtopic.
Friend has a Hollywood Centurion 17"( a rare jet) with a 460+ SCJ heads and Tunnel ram plus Basset "megaphones"....

the Warlock looks great.. but would look Super without the swimstep IMO.

 

[Prosno]

I was maybe 12 and my sisters husband had a 20 ft Aristo-craft and we went out the first time with a CCR 8 trac in the player and I was amazed, the girls, the slight rumble of the four cylinder, and believe it or not I thought Creedence was a black group.
We went along about 5 more times and it stuck with me, even got my first creedence cassette at 16 yrs old and then right after my divorce at 25 I decided to go for it and got me a 16 ft with a 45 hp merc.
Ran the hell out of that boat, kneeboarding and tubing the best it could and then upped to an 18 ft starcrat cps performance hull with a 235 merc-Oh ya!!!!!!!!!!!! lots of fun, then I went to a 19 checkmate and when I re-married I was boatless for awhile and then a few years after my wife passed my daughter asked about boating and my blood began to boil, palms began sweating and vision got blurry and pow the next thing ya know I'm out on the river in my 23 formula with Creedence jammin on the cd player.

 

[BRD]

Receptionist at our office used to take me out in her boyfriends Nova when he was outta town ...hehehee:sifone:
Super hot chick ..... BUT ...... about a year later .... turns out she was changin the names on checks and got us for about $45K before we caught it!
Anyways .... got me hooked on the boat thing needless to say !!! :driving:
Ohhh yeah .... my grandpa had some cool boats too .... but the other story is better dont ya think ?!?!??:bump::bump:

 

[glh]

 

[Blue Oval]

My Father, he did not like the water, but was always taking boats or anything else someone wanted to trade in on a car. He would tow one of the boats down to the Lake for me and tell me to go have fun. I was 12 or 13, he was a pretty cool guy!

 

[catastrophe]

Receptionist at our office used to take me out in her boyfriends Nova when he was outta town ...hehehee:sifone:
Super hot chick ..... BUT ...... about a year later .... turns out she was changin the names on checks and got us for about $45K before we caught it!
Anyways .... got me hooked on the boat thing needless to say !!! :driving:
Ohhh yeah .... my grandpa had some cool boats too .... but the other story is better dont ya think ?!?!??:bump::bump:

Good post..LOL:blush5:

 

[OldSchool]

We never had pleasure boats when I was a kid, but my Uncle had a boat that we would go out on. Before I was born, my Dad raced small hydroplanes with my uncle on the Potomac river. We were poor, my Uncle was rich.

My friends and I were all into fast motorcycles and cars as teenagers. We all had them (bikes) and would go riding every weekend. Unfortunately, it turned dangerous as bikes got faster and shenanigans grew and grew. I knew that if I kept riding, it would end in a bad way. My older brother died in an accident and I couldn't put my parents through the anxiety that they had when they would hear me leave the neighborhood. I sold my last motorcycle in 1984 and bought my first boat with a friend. A 15 foot Mitchell bowrider with a 115 Merc (for $2500). Two years later I bought a 18' Sutphen and kept that until 2001. That's when the real obsession started........

 

[MacGyver]

I've always had a love for the water. My uncle had a 30' and then a 40' Bayliner and I spent some weekends with my cousins on the boat. Then my uncle bought a ski boat for us to play with and we'd spend all weekend skiing and tubing. After my uncles divorce, he sold the boats and my fun was done for awhile. In my 20's, my first toy was going to be a jet ski. But a buddy talked me out of that and I ended up buying a 20' Rinker cuddy. Held on to that for quite a few years, but always wanted a go-fast boat. Then when my parents died a few years ago, I took all of my inheritance money and bought my 28' Powerquest. Probably not the right financial decision, but you only live once.

Ad of course, now I want bigger/faster

 

[hotjava66]

my dad brought home our first boat when i was 5, a 21' Century. we spent a lot of weekends on the Saginaw Bay, have a lot of great memories swimming, tubing, skiing, etc. then in the mid 80's he got a NovaII with a single big block, wasnt zippy enough for him so we added a supercharger and woke it up. the sound of that motor was sweet when u are a kid! about that time i became pretty much the full time driver/tender since he was one of those hyper/driven people who dont take care of the details, and we seemed to have less problems when i took care of things . it was about that time when they brought in the offshore races to our area to a few years, and i thought it was awesome, especially the popeye boat with a chase helicopter, and Don Johnson in town, wow! i remember one boat in particular, called Sassy Cat, had the best sounding engines i had ever heard, gave me chills. spent a lot of good years on the nova, and when i got older he let me take it myself sometimes, good times were had. I loved seeing the bigger offshores at that time, especially the formulas, loved the 357. when i was 18 he decided to upgrade again, tried to get him into a bigger scarab, but we ended up with a Wellcraft Gran Sport, which i learned to operate, but by this time i wasnt aroung as much and of course his ways caused mad problems with a bigger boat, and after a couple years the boat was gone. I have had a couple small boats since then but its not the same. Now, my kids are big enough and i really miss boating, so i been seriously looking and hope to have something by spring. Im really excited, and its been too long, have had just enough time on friends boats to keep the itch fresh. This economy has thrown a wrench in things but you only live once so here we go!

 

[Let 'Er Rip Cig]

Went for a ride on my buddys Scrabb and realized I had a huge "playground" in my back yard with no speed limit.

 

[Chris]

As a sub-question, how many among us once owned a white sportcoat and a pastel t-shirt?

 

[Tony]

Ive had an odd obsession with boats since I was a kid. My parents had a small fishing boat that we used on local inland hp restricted lakes. Somehow I managed to make it clear through high school without ever seeing or hearing about "C-Gar boats" A friend of mine took me to Kelleys Island one year for island fest and thats where I saw a marina full of Cigs, Scarabs, Fountains, Express Cats all tied deck to deck across the whole marina. I heard the old Jaws fire up and I think I may have jizzed in my pants. At that very instant I knew I had to have one. I bought a boat trader on the way home from the lake and the hunt was on.

 

[yesrej]

my parents have always been into boating. my father grew up with boats so he was always into it. the first boat he had when i was a kid was a 19' bayliner. he had that for nine months and bought a 27' chapperal that we had for many years. every weekend was on the boat. when i was like 8 years old a guy at our marina bought a 30 scarab panther and i told my father i was going to buy one of those so he knew i was into it then and started to teach me how to drive and dock. when i was 21 i told him i think i want to buy a boat and he started sending me emails on all these performance boats for sale. i went and bought a 1990 21' four winns liberator. it had a 350 with an omc king cobra. the drive never worked right and i would lose the boat for 3 months of the summer every year i had it. my father told me " welcome to boating ". i named the boat
4 ever broke!! i then bought my 2002 25 baja outlaw and have made the best friends of my life from these boards.

 

[Macklin]

Born into it as well. Grew up on the Linkhorn Bay which is a tributary to the Lynnhaven River and Ches Bay. Dad let me take our little boat out by myself when I was 6. Had several boats after than until I moved to Charleston, SC for work. Bought a corvette while I was down there. Gave me the need for speed so I sold it before moving back to the VA Beach and bought my first go fast. Then continued going bigger and faster.

Still legal to speed on the open water...at least for now!

 

[ChiefApache]

Marriage. :willy_nilly::willy_nilly:

 

[Wobble]

As a kid all I ever wanted to do was go sailing like the pirates I loved reading about. I sailed until I was 14 then realized I could go where I wanted with a motor instead of where the wind and tide would allow.

Still like to sail occasionaly, but powerboating is where my passion is.