Bill Deed’s boat designs-mostly power cruisers, dating from 1950-56-are now housed at the Mystic Seaport Museum.Īlthough prototypes were tested in 1954 with a 20-hp outboard, most 14-foot wooden Sea Mac boats used a 40-hp engine. They added forward steering, remote controls, a windshield, and two rows of vinyl-covered, padded seating made for a Bill Deed-designed watersports boat that handled lake, bay, inlet, and ocean waters very well. They used Philippine Mahogany lumber stock, covering boards and hull framing with marine-grade plywood that was essentially used everywhere else. Sea Mac wooden boats were typically an outboard-powered, 14-foot deluxe runabout for water skiing. Most 14-foot wooden Sea Mac boats used a 40-hp engine. An inboard was a rich man’s boat, but an outboard seemed to be within reach for a lot of folks. In the 1960s, fiberglass boats began to dominate. Plywood-sided and plywood-bottom outboard powered boats were popular after World War II. It was also excitement and an opportunity for early teen dating. Although the varnishing and painting in the early spring was more like punishment, it was also freedom. That boat transformed me as I grew into a young man. Or just maybe I was a crazy early-aged teenager who assumed that no serious harm could come to him. While Barnegat is a rough inlet depending on tide changes, going out with the bow up seemed safe, even in a 14-foot outboard powered boat. Then it was a trip back through the Point Pleasant Canal, heading south and down the Bay, back to Seaside Park. It was about 21 miles of ocean travel according to the charts, running just offshore between the two inlets. The big trip I’d take periodically began by heading South from the park to Barnegat Inlet, entering the Atlantic Ocean by following the fishing boats through the Inlet, and on a calm day, heading parallel to the coast, north to the Manasquan inlet (at least two six-gallon gas tanks of boating distance). For an after-school cruise, I’d shoot across Barnegat Bay and up the navigable route into downtown Toms River.Īn “adventure” took me up to and through the Point Pleasant Canal, where tide changes made for big and steep waves as we cruised beneath each bridge that crossed the canal. We went waterskiing north of the short Rt. My 14-foot classic Sea Mac outboard was slipped at my uncle’s private pier in Seaside Park, NJ. That’s where I was during that stage, with New Jersey’s age requirement of 17 years annoyingly far off in the distance. A young teenage boy eager to explore the world (and/or start dating) can see the years until he can get a driver’s license as an absolute eternity.
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