It’s a red-letter day at the Lake View Inn when somebody shows up with a new boat. Beers go flat and pizza goes cold at the bar while everyone adjourns to the parking lot to see the new, shiny thing, to either congratulate the owner or to scratch one’s head—what were they thinking investing in any boat not equipped with rod holders?
There was both envy and head-scratching evident in the small crowd gathered around the rig hitched to the truck that my good friend Chuck Larson wheeled onto the Lake View lot this past summer.
“I went to this estate sale up near Suamico, and I got there early,” Chuck said. “You have to get to these sales early, and this time it paid off. Look at this beauty!”
What Chuck had towed home was a 1995 Sylvan 16 Super Select aluminum -fishing boat powered by a 1970 Mercury 800 outboard. The boat was resting on an EZ Loader trailer that matched the vintage of the outboard, not the boat. Why the older motor and trailer were paired with a newer boat was a mystery—the previous owner was long gone, and the last registration sticker was from 1999. The entire package appeared absolutely pristine, like it just left a dealer’s showroom. All the paint was on the outboard skeg. There was no waterline on the boat.
“Look at this,” Chuck said as he opened the hatch to the livewell in the bow deck. He pulled out plastic dividers still bound together with white strapping tape. “I don’t think there’s ever been water in the livewell.”
The boat was a real throwback, from its carpet-covered gunwales to the cassette-player stereo. The Mercury outboard almost brought tears to my eyes. Its deep Phantom Black finish, metallic red and chrome details on the cowl, and on the front of the motor, a chromed shield with the Kiekhaefer Mercury logo. No current outboard looks this glamorous. I was about to put a foot on the square steel trailer fender to step up for a better look in the cockpit when I felt Chuck’s hand on my shoulder.
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“Please, shoes off,” Chuck said. “Let’s not mar the finish.” He grabbed a red plastic milk crate from the bed of his truck and set it on the ground. “Step on the crate if you want to get a better view.”
“Bet you can’t wait to launch this baby and experience a surge of two-stroke Mercury power,” Wally said.
“Oh, no!” Chuck said. “I can’t put the boat in the water. It might get dirty, and I’d get sand on the trailer tires. The boat is like-new, and it’s only new once.”
“But, Chuck, what good is a boat that never goes in the water?” Wally asked. “Are you just going to stare at it?”
So far, that’s exactly how Chuck has enjoyed this boat. Late at night, he sneaks out to the garage just to look at it. He takes it to launch ramps and to the gas station, places where people can admire his semivintage Sylvan. Just don’t ask him how it runs. It’s still new.
