Ron Freeman
Maggie Valley, NC
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My first Power Cat was this 14t
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Traded up to this 17t that I still own
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My Power Cat has
been running good this year and is in it's 41st season of continuous
use. It has been a
trailered
boat except for 3 seasons when I had a waterfront lot on Lake
Gaston in Virginia. There it was
kept on a lift
that hoisted it off the water ( see pic ). The type of lift I had was
pretty common in upstate New York.
I bought mine in
Skaneateles, NY at Mao's Marineland, a unique marina that also
accommodated float planes
and serviced other
boats and airplanes on the Finger Lakes via their own
SeaBee aircraft. I used my hoist
there for a year
before being transferred back to NC. I simply disassembled it and
packed the pieces inside
the boat and in
the boat trailer spaces under the cats tunnels and hauled it to
Lake Gaston.
My boat was 5
years old then and still had the original 1965 Merc 1000 outboard. The
Shoreline trailer
that
came with it was a rust bucket by it's 4th year so I refinished it
while the boat was stored on the
hoist. It later
reverted to a worse rust bucket. When I see the other nice looking
Power Cat pictures,
many are shown on
those quick-to-rust trailers of the 60's and 70's. But there was
little better to offer
back then. I think
5 gallons of paint per 100 trailers must have been the standard back
then.
Road rash would
peel them pretty fast. A picture of the old and the new are attached. I
bought my
new trailer in
1989. See the before and after pix attached.
Just
reminiscing...my Power Cat 17T is a member of the family and will keep
going and going as long
as it's taken care
of. But I still wonder when I'm zipping down the lake at 55+ if that
glass hull will just
vaporize or
disintegrate and I'll sink with a bunch of fiberglas roving
swirling about. Thank God you put
some wood and
flotation in it! Mine is a test of longevity and has certainly
delivered a lot of pleasure.
By the way, anyone
got a 3 blade 19" Quicksilver stainless steel prop to swap with my 21"?
Update my info
about the 41st year of use. I am proud of it.
Thanks, Ron Freeman 65 17T
Oct 2005
Thanks, Ron Freeman 65 17T
Oct 2005
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