1st for me
My first boat was the family boat that my dad got our 2nd summer in Moultonboro Neck, that was 1972. He was leery of getting a boat because we were still constructing the house and the "labor" wanted to skip swinging a hammer to enjoy the lake!
We kept begging though and eventually he bought a 16' 1966 Red Glastron. Probably from Shep Brown's. I can'tremember the model name but it might have been 16SV or 16SSV. It had red & white seats, 2 steel 6 gallon gas cans and an 85 horse Evinrude engine. It also had a full canvas top which was great if we got caught in the rain, which happened to me more than once. We mostly used it to water ski and take rides around Braun Bay, Long Island, and "up" to Center Harbor. I am the oldest of my siblings and I had a job before my sisters and brother, so if I could afford the gas we would go over to the Weirs for pinball, hanging around and people watching.
In those days we would start off on the ski raft out in front of our shared beach, (Far Echo Harbor Club) circle right around Gline's Island and come back down to our beach and drop there. You can't do that any more.
There is a no wake zone between the island and the neck now. It always was too narrow to go through there above headway speed, we just grandfathered it in by going through on plane like those before us had. I bet the folks on that corner of the neck love the peace of having that area posted for slow travel! Later when we got a little more powerful boat we would do a standing 1 ski start off that raft. But I digress.
The boat had cable steering, a 2 stick controller, a manual/electric choke that you could override if the damn thing wouldn't start, and a hand pull starter if you really had trouble. It also had a couple of oars in the gunnels. Used those a few times!
I miss the simplicity of that old boat sometimes, it drew minimal water. I think the shallow draft saved me a few times. It didn't even have an electric bilge pump, it had sisters and brothers to do that.
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