On Fri, 11 May 2007 07:56:55 -0400, "JimH"
wrote:


"RCE" wrote in message
...

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...



You probably won't believe this, but when I was a kid and a member of
the Sea Scouts I weighed all of 140 pounds dripping wet. One Saturday
morning a few of us were at the local Scout hangout (Beachcombers out
by Fort Sewall), somebody got the idea that we should try skiing
behind our restored 12 man whale boat.

We rounded up the rest of the whale boat crew and by afternoon had set
up in the harbor - 12 rowers, the Scout Master as coxswain (which was
normally my job) and me as the skier being the lightest guy on the
crew - no wind, flat calm.

Two false starts - third times the charm.

Skied for almost the length of Marblehead harbor. :)


We used to ski behind my 12' Sears aluminum boat with a 5-1/2 hp Johnson
"Sea Horse" engine.

Wasn't easy, but it can be done.

Those were fun days. Nobody worried about even registering the boat.

Eisboch


I had an old 5 1/2 hp Sea Horse and sold it to a fellow boater a few years
back as he collects old outboards and displays them in his finished
basement.

BTW: Mythbusters did a segment on trying to water ski behind a row boat.
I cannot recall if the guy ever got up on his skis.

Yep - he was pulled up by a rowing crew from Stanford I believe. Their
speed was higher than ours was just because of the nature of the
rowing boat - ours was massive and once it got rolling, it kept
rolling. When Mythbusters did it, it was a constant jerking motion -
when I did it it was smooth because of the weight of the boat overcame
the rowing motion.

That was the neat thing about that whale boat. Once it was moving, it
was smooth as silk and required very little effort to keep it going at
a fairly fast clip. We rowed it from Mablehead to Gloucester one
morning - if I remember correctly, it took six hours from harbor mouth
to harbor mouth with 16 aboard - rowers were on rotation.

Needless to say, we sailed it back. :)