Your first TinBoat. Post you pictures.

[Crazyboat]

Sadly all the photos I had taken were lost, but here's a link to my first Sears 7.5 HP for $248 and my first tin boat @ 12' and $199. Less than a year later I brought the ever failing 7.5 back to Sears for a full refund and grabbed a lightly used Johnson 15 and never looked back.
Comparing the water cooled 2 cyl Johnson to the air cooled Sears was like night and day!
1976 Sears Spring Summer Catalog, Page 1110 - Catalogs & Wishbooks



1976 Sears Spring Summer Catalog, Page 1113 - Catalogs & Wishbooks

 

[airshot]

Sadly all the photos I had taken were lost, but here's a link to my first Sears 7.5 HP for $248 and my first tin boat @ 12' and $199. Less than a year later I brought the ever failing 7.5 back to Sears for a full refund and grabbed a lightly used Johnson 15 and never looked back.
Comparing the water cooled 2 cyl Johnson to the air cooled Sears was like night and day!
1976 Sears Spring Summer Catalog, Page 1110 - Catalogs & Wishbooks



1976 Sears Spring Summer Catalog, Page 1113 - Catalogs & Wishbooks

View attachment 123340

Funny you mention the Sears outboard...my father purchased a new Sears 7.5 up motor in 1954. Awesome motor, always fired right up, ran it for over 10 years, only issue was a glass bowl under the carb which needed cleaning on occasion and it was slippery due to the oil in the fuel. We kept an extra on hand! Otherwise a great motor, traded it in for a bigger boat and motor.

 

[Crazyboat]

Funny you mention the Sears outboard...my father purchased a new Sears 7.5 up motor in 1954. Awesome motor, always fired right up, ran it for over 10 years, only issue was a glass bowl under the carb which needed cleaning on occasion and it was slippery due to the oil in the fuel. We kept an extra on hand! Otherwise a great motor, traded it in for a bigger boat and motor.

I don't know if the Ted Williams (Sears eng) was a pig or not. I bought her in April of 76, I was 13, she broke down by May and I brought her back to Sears. 2 weeks later she was back on the boat and running again. She broke down again in June, had her back at Sears and by the time schools let out I was back up and running again. This repair lasted all summer, ran that bad boy like an animal, no wake speed and WOT, like any dumb kid I guess. Went clamming for extra cash and to help pay my father back for the loan of $500. By Nov she broke down again and I remembered Sears had a full 1 year guarantee. I brought her in with my receipt, plunked her down on the counter and got back my $248 bucks. Found the used Johnson for $440. Negotiated down to an even $400 and was out the door. She ran like a top until the day I sold her. Did everything from exploring swamps, to water skiing to a jaunt or two in the ocean. I'll also never forget paying my father back the last of the loan. Made me feel real good to know I kept my word, not that dad would have let me forget it.

 

[airshot]

I don't know if the Ted Williams (Sears eng) was a pig or not. I bought her in April of 76, I was 13, she broke down by May and I brought her back to Sears. 2 weeks later she was back on the boat and running again. She broke down again in June, had her back at Sears and by the time schools let out I was back up and running again. This repair lasted all summer, ran that bad boy like an animal, no wake speed and WOT, like any dumb kid I guess. Went clamming for extra cash and to help pay my father back for the loan of $500. By Nov she broke down again and I remembered Sears had a full 1 year guarantee. I brought her in with my receipt, plunked her down on the counter and got back my $248 bucks. Found the used Johnson for $440. Negotiated down to an even $400 and was out the door. She ran like a top until the day I sold her. Did everything from exploring swamps, to water skiing to a jaunt or two in the ocean. I'll also never forget paying my father back the last of the loan. Made me feel real good to know I kept my word, not that dad would have let me forget it.

When they moved to the Ted Williams branding, their motors went cheap, mostly air cooled. The 54 we had was the "Elgin" brand, well built, water cooled engine. Can't remember a time she didn't run well...

 

[Bassman4you]

Bought this many years ago. Past few years I have customized it. 1976 Duranautic 14'.

 

[jbayless89]

Just bought this one today ... a 1964 Lone Star Medallion. Looks like a 16-foot.

Has a fugly but well running '84 70-horse Evinrude on it. I'm planning to get my 13-year-old to help me fix it up.

 

[Bailey Boat]

I was 8, didn't own a camera and it was long before computers so no where to post such a thing but it will always live in my memory...
It was a 12' Arkansas Traveler with a 5 hp Buckaneer handed down from my Grandfather when he got a new AT 14' with a 9.9 Johnson. His had a trailer but mine didn't so I was at his mercy to haul me down to the water in his pickup. I would sometimes leave it in the water, and being on Lake Ouachita in the late 50's it was perfectly safe. Many a frog and fish met it's demise at the hands of me and that boat..... and my Johnson Century fishing reel....

 

[Bantou]

I was 8, didn't own a camera and it was long before computers so no where to post such a thing but it will always live in my memory...
It was a 12' Arkansas Traveler with a 5 hp Buckaneer handed down from my Grandfather when he got a new AT 14' with a 9.9 Johnson. His had a trailer but mine didn't so I was at his mercy to haul me down to the water in his pickup. I would sometimes leave it in the water, and being on Lake Ouachita in the late 50's it was perfectly safe. Many a frog and fish met it's demise at the hands of me and that boat..... and my Johnson Century fishing reel....

Those are some of the best boats. Some of my earliest memories are of running around Lake Crook and Lake Worth with my Dad in his 10' jon with a 3hp kingfisher. The first fish I remember catching was out of that boat on Crook. We were trolling for sand (white) bass and the sandy hit so hard that I thought I had snagged up. It wasn't until Dad got the boat stopped that I realized it was a fish.

We haven't been able to run the boat in years because we don't have a title and Texas now requires one for all motorized (including electric) boats. The motor lives on though and I'm going to put in on Bertha as a pony/trolling motor. That way I don't have to run the 15hp at low rpm or burn up a bunch of my battery life to troll across the lake.