Boats In My Family

The Uncus

"The Uncas" on Lake Champlain, 1937. Owned by Winfred R. Rose, my great uncle. I never sailed on this boat because it was before my time.

That's me in 1963. Not old enough to drive a car yet. This was the substitute for a fast car. Dad and I built this from plans in Mechanix Illustrated. One of the "15 dollar, 15 hour projects," that ended up more like "45 dollars and 45 hours." (The original, obnoxious, Personal Watercraft!) Picture was taken on Fourth Lake in the Central Adirondack Mountains of New York.

Right about here I should have a picture of a Lightning. Still searching for a photograph of it. Had it for about one year. That's enough. Bought it used. Since the 19 foot Lightning is an old design, hard chine hull originally in wood, to make it in fiber glass they used a foam core. One pin hole in the floor and the foam ends up saturated (water ballast?). I always wondered why that thing was so slow. Sold it to some other sucker who didn't know either.

Flying Scot #282

Flying Scot #282, "Windflower" in 1978. Again, shown on Fourth Lake, in "God's country." Nancy and I enjoyed this boat until 1991. The Flying Scot is a fantastic 19 foot family racer/day sailor.

Postcard image

This is a postcard of the start of one of the Saturday races on Fourth Lake. We never knew about the postcard until we found it on a rack in the grocery store the following year. We're famous!

NanSea, Precision 27

This is our current boat "NanSea," a Precision 27, arriving in Put-in-Bay during one of our summer cruises. She is a very roomy and fast 27 footer.

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