When I was a child at the cabin, we knew all the boats. There were not many to learn-perhaps nine or ten that came by with any frequency. They were heavy (many made of mahogany), slow, and difficult to maneuver. Most were inboards, with a low-pitched roar that would bring us to the windows every time.

The first sound was a gentle rumbling in the distance, swelling and rising in pitch until, at the closest point, we could count heads and identify occupants, exchanging a friendly wave. Then the roar would decline, washed out in the middle distance by the crash of a mighty wake, then reappearing very briefly as the modest, deep-throated rumble that had started the whole episode.

Imagine our excitement when we were swimming, and one of these great boats would go by. Dad would cringe, because the wake threatened our own dock and boats. We kids rode the surf, without a care in the world.

Not all were inboards. At that time we owned two Peterborough wooden-strip boats, a Lakeside and a Seafarer. The Lakeside had side-facing benches at the stern, from which it was easy to sit and run the engine. The Seafarer was larger, with a permanent half-roof, and a tremendous green Johnson ìSea Horseî-a 25-horsepower engine.

For myself, I am partial to the canoe (though many find its pace a little slow!). Among mechanized boats, however, I have an incurable fondness for the old inboards. A neighbor down the river has one, and when he decides to take it out now and then, it is a thrill to see and to hear it.

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Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605