Rivited…

The summer I was ten was the year my father started commercial fishing. The boat was 14-foot, fiberglass and powered with a single Johnson outboard motor. The next year he upgraded to an 18-foot rivited aluminum hull boat with a small cabin Forward to get out of the weather. It was powered with twin Johnson outboards. This was the first boat I ever handled at the dock; All I can say is that I got it there, but not without putting a small dent in one side.

One day we were fishing the Rock Pile 18 miles offshore and the wind started picking up. Dad hauled in the gear as quick as he could and hammered the twin outboards towards shore. The boat could move and we were slamming over the waves when dad noticed that water was filling the bottom of the boat. He handed me a hand pump and told me to get to work. I stroked on that pump all the way to the dock just to keep up with the leak. That night when dad pulled the boat out of the water he found several rivits missing. The holes were plugged with small bolts, big washers and some kind of sealent. More bolts we added as the summer passed and they were still there when he sold it in the fall and upgraded to a 25-foot Owens Craft.

And that was the summer of 1965.