In 1998, Kathy and I were looking for an activity the entire family could enjoy. After a Labor Day weekend watching the older kids learn to water ski, we started looking at lake property. It was expensive, and we knew nothing about lakes or boats, so we chose the modest course: buy a boat first and learn everything the hard way.
The first boat was a 1994 twenty-foot Bryant with a MerCruiser 5.0. Our early outings supplied an accelerated education: a dead battery, water in the gas, hundreds of gallons in the bilge, ruptured bellows, a flooded engine, and eventually a call from the marina saying the boat had nearly sunk.
Then we ran out of gas in the middle of the lake while the gauge showed nearly half a tank.
Why we kept boating
Once the Bryant’s particular collection of problems was understood, it became exactly what we had hoped for. The kids tubed, skied, and swam. We trailered it to Kentucky for a family reunion. In 2002 we moved to a Cobalt 240—hull number one of the model—and gained the space we needed.
The original archive includes boating costs, photographs from 1998 onward, and rules accumulated through use. Those materials will be restored here in full during migration.