My buddy Sam and I had talked before about how nice it would be to have a boat, even something small and simple. Neither of us are avid swimmers, but there is just something about being out on the water that has always been soothing and relaxing.
Last week we were on a small backpacking trip on the river shore. We hiked a couple miles down stream one day, seeing many boats along the way. Again, mentioning to each other how nice it would be to own a boat. Then Sam mentioned how we could use it for camping also. To carry more gear than we could physically backpack, and quite a bit further. I had never really thought about combining the two. We discussed it further sitting around the campfire that night, and decided we should look into this.
Five days later we had purchased a 50 year old Johnson motor that was in outstanding condition, and runs like a top. The next day we had purchased a large canoe, paddles and life vest. Exactly one week after the idea was sparked at camp, we were out on the water in our very own boat.
It didnt take much researching to figure out that with just about everything we get into, this boating "quest" was not going to be cheap. First we looked into some smaller electric outboard motors. While they were easily half the price of the gas engines, they were also more hassle, and runtime was a major concern. We soon knew that we needed to go with a gas outboard. The cheapest new gas outboard motor I could find was a 5 HP Briggs and Stratton for $745 shipped. This was a bit more than we were willing or able to spend on a motor, so we decided to put that off till later, looking in the bulletin board for a deal to pop up. Well it turned out, the first bulletin we looked in had an old Johnson 5.5 HP motor in it for $200. (which later ended up being $250, but was still worth it) We figured what the heck and called the guy up to ask a few questions. It sounded like just what we needed, so after more than an hours drive we found the guys place and checked out the motor. It was in amazing shape, and extremely clean. He had just had it overhauled last year, and even had the receipt for what was done to it. It started right up, and seemed to run great.
After we bought the motor and researched it even further for parts, manuals, etc. we found out the date it was made, and we were quite surprised. It is a Johnson CD-14, and was made in 1957.
Thats right, it is 50 years old, and still running great. We were even more amazed at this point. You are lucky to keep something 5 years these days, let alone it still look and run this good.
Next was the boat. Yea, I know we did things a bit bass ackwards. But we knew that we wanted a flat back canoe so that we could mount the outboard motor. We had looked at a Quest brand 15'=4" canoe at Dicks Sporting Goods a couple days before, and went back the next day to purchase it, two paddles, and a couple life vests. Yes, even we were going to wear life vests. I cant swim worth a damn, and figured the extra safety factor would be worth the money, not to mention you have to have one for each person in the boat for legal reasons.
Once we got home with the new boat, we wasted no time mounting the motor to it. We were pleased with how well it fit and how easy it was to take on and off. You simply place it over the lip of the boat, and tighten down the two clamps.
The next day was a perfectly sunny Saturday morning, perfect for its maiden voyage. One of the nice things is there is a small loading dock right in town, less than 10 minutes from my house. So we figured that would be a good place to start. Surprisingly, the boat was not all that hard to row for its size, and we were even heading up stream. I think we topped out right around 3 mph, according to the GPS data. It was a bit slow to turn, but that is to be expected with a large flat bottom canoe. It sat well in the water with two people in the boat. One at the rear and one at the front seat. We were worried how it would balance out, but it didnt seem bad at all. The canoe is rated for alittle over 800 lbs. So as long as you distribute the weight it should be fine.
We weren't on the water long before we just had to fire up the motor and try it. The Johnson motor fires up quite easily, and seemed to run just fine. I made some small adjustments to the high and low mixture, but thats it. The boat got up to speed fairly quickly, and seemed to be very stable. We topped out at around 10.4 mph I believe. Sure, we would have liked to go faster, but this was a satisfactory speed, one that could get us up river in a reasonable amount of time.
This first trip was a great learning experience for us. We learned alot about the boat and the motor, and how we should go about our future trips. We headed up what is known as the West Fork River, which is very shallow in many places. So shallow you could crawl your way through the water. For the most part, the boat did fine. I dont think you needed even a foot of water to keep it afloat with us in it. The motor is another story. There were many times we simply couldnt use the motor for fear it would smack into a rock. So we would have to tilt it up out of the water and paddle. We knew this would be the case though for many areas. That was a major deciding point on the type of boat that we bought. We wanted the largest boat that we didnt need a trailer for, and could drag over shallow areas if needed.
One thing that we did notice though, was that the rocks scratched and gouged the bottom of the boat more than we were hoping. So we are currently looking into ways to add a bit of protection to the hull.
I will add to this page as we figure out the best solutions, and learn more about the boat.
