ISOBEL

Every now and then, the stars align and every element falls into place for a very special project. In the spring of 2021, during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, a good friend telephoned me for some boat advice. Mary Jane was considering purchasing a lakefront property, and she asked me to advise her about an appropriate small motorboat to serve as a tender to the property. She had a trial run scheduled with a local dealer for a small production outboard launch and wondered if I would like to take a ride.

It was early May, which in coastal Maine is very early boating season. The temperature was chilly, but the sun was bright, the air was crisp and breezy, and I hadn’t been afloat yet that year. Why not go for a ride?

We met on the shore of Lake Megunticook in Camden, Maine, where the dealer had the boat ready to launch. It was a brand-new, traditional 21' offering—something that would have been familiar to anyone who grew up on a lake in the U.S. or Canada in the mid- to late-20th century. More attractive utility launch than runabout, it featured a boxy metal-framed windshield over a short foredeck, bench helm seats aft of the dashboard, aft-facing seats amidships, and a bench seat across the after end of the cockpit. All surfaces in the cockpit were carefully wrapped in marine-grade white vinyl. In a splash-well aft, a 150-hp two-stroke gasoline-powered outboard motor loomed over the quarterdecks.

The motor rumbled to life, and we cast off from the dock and explored the beautiful lake for an hour or so putting the boat through its paces. Mary Jane had experience with large saltwater sailboats, but the small powerboat world was a mystery to her, so this experience was quite enlightening. The boat was a good performer, coming up on plane easily and running at speed smoothly and steadily. It also exhibited the typical vices of outboard boats: difficult close-quarters maneuvering, engine noise from the tall cowling, and the outboard motor’s visual interruption of the boat’s lines—and the sight lines from the boat. The most noticeable vice came when we tried backing into a stiff breeze; the exhaust gases welled up from the water’s surface and blew back through the cockpit, carrying the distinctive gas-and-oil smell of a two-stoke motor.

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