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From: William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Request for a recommendation.
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2024 13:53:48 -0400
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Kevrob wrote:
> On 10/13/2024 10:56 AM, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
>> On 12/10/2024 12.48, William Hyde wrote:
>>> Kevrob wrote:
>>>> On 10/5/2024 2:07 PM, William Hyde wrote:
>>>>> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>>>> On 10/2/2024 1:46 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
>>>>>>> In article <vdk2tj$t76$1@panix2.panix.com>,
>>>>>>> Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>> William Hyde  <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I am looking for a book which will interest a 12 year old kid 
>>>>>>>>> who is
>>>>>>>>> fascinated by things mechanical.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> A fiction book or nonfiction?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> When I was... younger than 12, might have been about seven... I 
>>>>>>>> got my
>>>>>>>> father to buy me the Chilton's engine rebuilding annual.  I 
>>>>>>>> still have
>>>>>>>> it.  I spent months poring over it.
>>>>>>>> --scott
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> L. Sprague deCamp actually wrote a non-fiction book about engines.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Huh, it's actually called _Engines_:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>     https://www.amazon.com/Engines-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/B0006BZMX8
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That is a wild picture.  I can tell you from experience, working 
>>>>>> on a outboard engine in the middle of a lake or river is not fun 
>>>>>> when you drop whatever you were working on in the drink.  In my 
>>>>>> case, it was the propeller after we ran over a log and broke the 
>>>>>> prop key. One should always have a spare prop and several keys on 
>>>>>> board.
>>>>>
>>>>> I had a similar experience but without the log (why it broke I do 
>>>>> not know).
>>>>>
>>>>> It's amazing how long it takes to  move a 10 foot boat a mile with 
>>>>> only one paddle.  If there had been any kind of current the other 
>>>>> way I'd still be out there.
>>>>>
>>>>> I could have swum back faster.
>>>>>
>>>>> I never went out again without checking the spares, even if I 
>>>>> absolutely knew they were there.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> William Hyde
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I used to put my Great-Uncle's 3.5 hp Evinrude (a 1956, IMS) on the
>>>> back of my family's 10-ft aluminum dinghy,
>>>
>>>
>>> We also had a 3.5 Evinrude, and the year is about right.
>>>
>>> Also an aluminum boat.  It usually had oars, but for some reason they 
>>> were gone that day and only a paddle remained.  I could have rowed it 
>>> back easily enough, but paddling is for canoes, not boats.
>>>
>>> My uncle was well off, and every year he had new and stronger 
>>> engines. the last I recall were twin 80 mercs. 
>>
>> Hopefully, they weren't on the same old aluminum rowboat.
>>
>>
> 
> A frequent comment from older salts down where folks put their craft
> in the water:  "You've got too much motor on that boat."
> 
> I thought our 3.5hp engine was just right. I thought anything more than 
> a 5hp gas engine might be too heavy for the stern.


In my childish way I thought that bigger was better.  I longed for a 
ten, or even a five.  But I grew out of that.



  Since the last time I
> piloted any kind of boat, electric engines have come in, so I don't know
> what tiny craft get rated for, these days. I imagine the shape of the
> hull still matters. BITD you'd not want much power on a dinghy that you 
> could also sail, as it would draw differently than our almost flat-
> bottomed one.
> 
> Twin 80s would be nice on the back of a cabin cruiser, or a mid-sized
> skiff.  How big was your uncle's boat?

I was eight last time I saw it, so I can't be too accurate.

He was very into skiing and ski jumping.  In summer he lived on a large 
house on Lake Muskoka, with a boathouse and at least two large craft, 
winter in Florida where he had another establishment.  He may have had a 
boat like ours, but I never saw him in it.  Fishing was not on the 
agenda except in the ocean.

If he were twenty years younger, he could have been in a 60s beach movie 
as the cool or alternately creepy older guy.  Twenty years older and 
he'd have been a natural extra for "Weekend at Bernie's".  He did love 
the water.



William Hyde