[ApS]

Originally Posted by SteveA

"...I've seen this particular video for sale on ebay as someone else mentioned..."

The site listed by Rose has a price of $14.95 on it. It's listed as taken from a 16mm film.

Originally Posted by tis

I can just barely remember my Mom going on a surfboard! I remember her getting up the same way, up on the knees and then a standing position. I don't know why I remember that but I do. Ours had a slight rise in the front. I remember part of it was red. I wonder if it is still around somewhere? What a nice memory!

We watched aquaplanes in use, but it sure didn't seem very challenging.

A bridle kept it straight behind the boat, the rider hung onto a rope made like a rein, and you leaned left or right to move back and forth across the wake.

Skiing was much more creative, and slalom-skiing meant you had "arrived".

Last week, a 10' surfboard was being paddled in a standing position—with a very long paddle—a few houses away. When it's not being paddled, it's being towed behind a speedboat!

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

"...Did that plane EVER get into the air???..."

According to my Dad, that was a 1929 Travel Air SA6000.

It's engine was a nine-cylinder 450-HP Pratt & Whitney "Wasp". Odd-numbered cylinders are the norm in radial engines. For more power, a second and third set were stacked onto one crankshaft (usually in stacks of nine cylinders to get over 3300-HP).

The "Wasp" engine provided a cruising speed of 120-MPH and a top speed of 140-MPH. It landed at 65-MPH: take-off speed was dependent on wind and waves.

It had six wicker seats in addition to the pilot's. No seatbelts were required until 1928, and that was only in open-cockpit aircraft.

My Dad was treated to a ride on the model SA6000 floatplane on Winnipesaukee by his mother, who didn't know he'd already flown on a 1927 Travel Air 6000—a year before they were certified for flight! The pilot was Lt. Robert S. Fogg, who stored his Travel Air 6000 in my grandfather's garage in Massachusetts.

The wings were easily removed for storage, and for the floatplane models (the SA designation), wings were often painted yellow for visibility if downed by misadventure. (Orange was the norm on Travel Air 6000 wings.) After the market crash of 1929, Curtis-Wright bought Travel Air out.

Lt. Fogg was a WWI aviator who, after that war, was assigned by the fledgling Federal Aviation Authority to locate the best operating sites for floatplane operations in the US. He flew the mail routes around Lake Winnipesaukee.

Originally Posted by dpg

"...1929? Those boats were really moving for 1929 weren't they...?"

They were—even I was impressed!

My Dad made mention of the "Century", which was a small inboard runabout hereabouts with Model T engines of 151 cubic inches.

The Century was direct-drive, which meant it had no clutch: a push on the start button meant that the boat was already moving-out! With the innovation of the "Rajah" spark plug, they were made to go even faster.

Another popular speed boat was the Aero-Marine Ltd.: one operated out of Lake Winnipesaukee's Camp Wyanoke.

(I'd have put more of my Dad's excellently-detailed Winnipesaukee recollections here, but I ran out of breakfast napkin to write on!)

Travel Air model SA6000 (on floats) and model 6000 photos follow: