Last year, after wishing we had a boat, cause fall was approching and the fish were heading into deeper water. My uncle gave me and my partner Nate a project boat. It was fire engine red, the floor was rotted, and she had no steering wheel or motor. But we did not care, we had a boat. So we went on craigslist and purchased a motor at a reasonable price, 25hp and in excellent condition, what he Failed to tell us was there was an adapter that conected the fule line to the motor, more on that later.

We worked for months fixing this boat the redneck way. Creating our own control panel, laying a new plywood floor and patio carpet. When it came to the motor we were clueless, We knew it could be wired to the battery so we tried that but something was a miss seeing how the engine would crank when we connected the battery cables. We did some research and found we needed a solenoid to keep the engine from turning over until the key was turned. We decided we would just hand crank it and not bother with the key start for now.

Thinking we were ready I invited my pops to come out with us. My mom dropped pops off to us in the morning, and we loaded the boat with all our gear and headed off for the lake. We stopped by Dockside bait shop to get our bait then proceeded to the sandbar. We prepped the boat, conected the fuel line and got pops in the boat as I started to back down the ramp there was a CRACK, THUD! when I got out to see what the problem was I noticed pops was missing. The seat screws didn’t hold and the seat fell backwards and poor pops was laying on the floor. After a good laugh we began to lower the boat, but Nate made the mistake of unhooking the boat from the trailer before starting the engine. Nate quickly Climbed aboard the boat and tried to start the engine while i parked the truck.

When I returned to the ramp they had drifted 25 feet out, I could see Nate yanking on the cord trying to get the engine to turn over. I laughed for a moment before realizing they were drifting further, Nate gave up on the engin and began to frantically look for the paddles. “Trow the anchor!” I yelled Nate Threw the make shift anchor, a heavy scissor car jack tied to a rope, and he yelled “Were are the paddles?” Thinking to myself Oh No ” I holared back “Left them at the house.” Nate slapped his forehead and gave a Homer Simpson “DUH!” “You’ll Have To Swim Out Here And Get us.” Nate Replied.

I began to Strip down to my shorts and walk out. The Stones on the floor of the lake hurt like hell, as i got up to my chest i couldn’t go any further. Nate then grabbed the anchor line and pulled the boat forward, then he lifted the anchor and gave it a toss in my direction and pulled the boat closer till i was able to grab the rope and walk the boat to shore. After all that excitement we just fished from shore and laughed at ourselves and our first boat adventure pops comment is and will always be “At least she floats.”.

Since our adventure We found the problem and fixed it, but I don’t think I’ll be taking on anymore project boats anytime soon. This is one of our favorite stories, and I’m glad to be able to share it with you.

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