My first drift boat was from a kit I bought for $250.00, the price included three oars. The kit maker is long out of business and to be real about it, the boat itself was not that great. It made do though as I wanted to have a boat and did not have the money to buy a better one. I do not have any pictures of it as they are long gone.

It was a good learning boat though as I abused it quite a bit. I did not know about the horse shoe oar locks so I used regular row boat locks. That was a mistake. My oars kept popping out of the sockets at the most inappropriate times. Yet we managed to get through a few seasons and put a lot of steelhead on board. I had a lot to learn and at the time learned most of it on my own as I really did not have any mentors.

I looked with envy at the Keith Steele boats that I saw and marveled at the lines and the wood work. All of this was before aluminum and fiberglass drift boats came along.

While I was building the boat I came across a bit of a hitch when I went to put the bottom on. It had been pre-cut and did not cover the whole bottom. I called the kit maker and he told me to come over and he would give me a sheet of plywood to take care of that.

Everything went together with nails and that showed up as a problem not too long after the first use. The rowers seat started to come apart as the nails began to pull out. No ring nails then nor any screws. Like I said it was a questionable boat to begin with. The shoe was another piece of plywood nailed to the ribs and outside chine.(there was not inside chine) Trouble was it was too long to be nailed at the back end. It fit between two ribs. I just let it be for the time being and it helped the boat have some interesting handling characteristics as it acted like a scoop unbeknownst to me at the time. I just thought that was the way the boats handled. As I look back on it now it was the classic "Youth and Exuberance". Danger did not fit in as we managed to get down the river upright all the time.

I had the boat parked down by our feeding stalls for the horses. My dad heard a commotion and went out there with a shotgun. He saw some dogs harassing the horses and shot at them to run them off. A couple of days later I went to look at my boat for some reason and whole front end was peppered with bird shot. He had run the dogs off but left a pretty pattern on the front of the boat.

I later sold that boat to some young fellows and bought my first Keith Steele boat. 16' High Side, Trailer, 3 oars, anchor system and anchor for $860.00. All brand new.........

It is fun to think back about some of this stuff. I wish I had kept better track of some of the pictures but the memories are still there......