Lets hear about your first boat

[CJB0470]

Eleven foot fiberglass hull with a 0290, 125 horse lycoming. I was 30 and went for my first airboat ride at a friends in Okeechobee, he had a 13 foot Big O with a eight cylinder Continental and a eight blade Warp. I was hooked!!! I have a stock 220 on a 13.6 Cottonmouth and have had it for almost ten years.
Chris.

[harley]

10ft Diamondback , 180 AV. was a great little boat , fun to drive and fast also.

[Whitebear]

wow! Thats one FINE boat for a first boat ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Nice man.

[OTTER]

My dad helped me bend 2 sheets of 4x8 plywood and form a mini boat for the small AG canals around Lake Okeechobee.
It was about 8 feet long nose to transom and about 6 feet wide. It had a 16 HP Kohler motor off a Cub Cadet tractor.
bent rebar for the cage with chicken wire and a rudder from a J5 Cub covered in fabric.
was awesome in the canals at nite gigging, but was a total embarrassment in the lake in front of friends that had a/c motor bigger boats.

Fun as S*%T to run around on too.
2 people could pick it up and put it into the back of a pickup truck to get it there.

[Bruce]

10ft Diamondback , 180 AV. was a great little boat , fun to drive and fast also.

that was my buddies first boat also minus the solid rake front seat and av jugs i put the av jugs on it for him and he actually bought them from rick the creator of this site and not to correct you but it was a 170 150 with 480 avs great lil ride wonder what happened to it

[terrible ted]

well my first is right down the street with a new motor and trailer. But that's not an air boat is a 1953 star-craft looks great. By the way i was born into that one. By age 15 it was all mine.

Now for air-boat a POS cotton mouth DD 400 then it was a DD 350 another 350 and a gear box. Put a new hull under her. then new rigging then new AC motor. I think some time around 2005 is when i bought it.

[Larry]

My first boat was a christmas present from my dads friend when I was 13 back in 1989. 11ft west palm hull built 1964 with a 250 chevy inline six. Beat the hell out of that boat for many years, even had a turbo on it at one point . Now my little brother has it for his first boat with a H2AD 160 on it, hull still going strong.
When I had it last

Today

[watersports7]

12' Ex Army Corp Of Engineers Aluminum Panther 'Spray Rig' didnt keep her long but she taught me the basics, next was a bit smaller (from one exreme to the other..) A 10' round nose glass panther with poly/ pe 60 90 HP/ 3 blade warp drive, I believe both boats are still in use and being enjoyed!

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[dblj006]

11' 6" Gore with a "150" Lycoming

[charlie]

my first lady and i miss her 11' taylor with a 160 and a four blade warp drive great little grass boat

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[airboater67]

!st, 2nd, and current boat. 1st. was a aircat with 1600cc vw.

[NorthWestFloridaBoy]

Let's resurrect this old but good thread. My first airboat was a 12' apache with a pe90 that I got from my friend's dad when I was 14. He wanted like 1500 for the motor which I couldn't afford so I bought the hull, trailer and old brazed together rusted rigging. I wish I still had that hull right now because it would be perfect for what I'm trying to build. My second airboat was a 8x4 lakebuggy I built at work it was fun, but it was a joke, I wanted something I could really take to the river and that lakebuggy would have gotten sunk out there quick. So I ended up trading a 4wheeler to gruprgtr for a 13' Gilileo with an old DD Corvette 350 on it. I had that boat for a few years and loved it but then I had kids and gas was 4.00 a gallon up here so I got rid of her. If it didn't take 100 dollars in gas to go play for a few hours I would've kept it, but it drank gas too fast for my taste. I'm looking for a 4A084 to power a mini I'm wanting to build. Now that I'm older and wiser and have a partial machine shop at my house I'm confident that my next one will be perfect for my needs. Here's a video of my lakebuggy that I built. That's my friend Rodney driving it, not me.

[flcracker9]

1982, 10' jon boat with a Briggs & Straton 7hp engine (pull start), wood prop, dog leg steering. Gigged a lot of frogs with that little boat. It fit in the back of my pickup and I could launch it anywhere. Stepped up to a 11' Gore hull with a 150 Lycoming around 1985.

[lanny haff]

11 ft fiberglas hull with a 305 pontiac. It got up on a plane but wasn't very fast. I wound up keeping the rigging cage rudder and engine stand. Got a new hull and sbc and had a fairly decent boat which I totally enjoyed. That was back in the early 80s about 5or6 boats ago. But I made a lot of friiends.

[bkmail]

Piece of crap Alaska Airboat was my first one. Thought it was great till I bought one built by Skip Olsen in Fbx. These high cab boats and Alumatech hulls rock.
I now own a marine business and we build them in Palmer.
Skip is the man!
Bk






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