Ned’s Got A Whaler Of A Story!

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A Whaler onsie!

Fellow Woody Boater Ned Protexter sent us in this wonderful story about love, and ones passion all coming together in the form of a boat! Now this is what its all aboat. Get it.. A Boat.. Ugh.. Take it away Ned, before I stink up the entire planet with bad puns.

Ned and Jill on the left. Lake Dora

I can be talked into some mediocre ideas and I don’t say no to a good time. When my wife Jill and I were at Mt Dora this spring, we saw some neat small boats and I kept hearing “it would be nice if I had something like that to take the baby and dog out on the lake while you are at work.”

Woody Here to interrupt… The next line is the best! I am still laughing, This earns Ned & Jill the title WoodyBoaters of the month!

Okay, that sounds good, a reason to buy a new toy but at the time, the baby was a way out, last time I checked we don’t have a dog, and we live in Denver, CO so no real lakes around. I brushed the idea off and didn’t think much more about it.

Oh boy! Lake Dora 2019

The last afternoon we were there, Royce Humphreys offered to let us take Gary Visser’s 13 foot Whaler through the canals which I gladly accepted. I had never driven anything smaller than a Century Arabian so I didn’t know how this small boat would handle but was very surprised how well it did.

Royce causing problems!

As we are going through the canals, Jill couldn’t look any happier and I kept hearing “I need something like this.” Ya sure, this is exactly what we need….

The cause of the Whaler Infection at Lake Dora next to Termite Teroor

The next week I am back in the office working hard searching Facebook Marketplace and run across this 13 foot Whaler with a 40 horse Johnson on it that has been in storage for 20 years that looked to be in great shape and all there along with a top, cover, oars, trailer, etc. The price was a no brainier so I called Royce to see what he thought of it and like the enabler he has been to me (did the same thing on my 1963 Coronado) told me to shoot them an offer and I’d probably own it and that is exactly what happened.

Perfect!

This is where the connections from the local Iowa Great Lakes Chapter of the ACBS comes in. Chris Muggie, Steelcraft Extraordinaire was going to be in the Madison, WI area and offered to pick up the boat and get it back to Okoboji. Once back, the Whaler went in Royce’s shed and then into Parker Hays’ shed. Alex Kent went with me to bring it back to our hometown for the time being. It takes a village to bring home a small boat. At this point, I sprayed the boat down at the car wash to clean it up some and backed it into the garage where it sits now.

Marketplace find!

But Ned, good for you, what about Jill? Well, she just had a birthday and now is the proud owner of a Whaler. For three months, I kept hearing “I really want a little boat and it will have a flag on the back and I’m going to name it “Little Toot” and the baby and I can go fishing and cruise around the lake.” Keeping this boat a secret for three months was tough and I made up every excuse I could “I don’t want to buy another wood boat and maintain it” “those Whalers are a lot of money” “I don’t want an aluminum boat” “you can just take the Coronado.”

Oh.. Jill, dont open them! It’s a trap!

For her birthday, I bought her and wrapped in whale wrapping paper a Whaler key float, a Whaler onesie (for the baby), a Whaler shirt, and an owner’s manual with pictures of her actual boat.

Love it

The other gifts didn’t really click until the owner’s manual was opened. She was very happy with it and I will get, I mean she will get a lot of use out of this great little boat.

CLICK!

Lets go!

PERFECT!

Congrats to Ned and Jill for another addition to your family. And of course Just say’n, with one click! HERE you can make all her dreams come true.

22 replies
    • Ned Protexter
      Ned Protexter says:

      I’ll one up that with we are moving to the lake full time in two months. I’ll buy the baby a dog costume.

  1. Lamo
    Lamo says:

    Perfect second boat for when you don’t want to take your woodie out.

    Nice big Johnson there too Ned.

    Couldn’t resist.

  2. Steve in the woods
    Steve in the woods says:

    I waited and tried to get same rig from original owner for over 20 years. Finally got it, cleaned and buffed, tuned the little Johnson, and she was a hot! Sold to my cousin for his daughters, and they are happy in Rockport, Tx.

  3. gary visser
    gary visser says:

    How like my brother Royce to loan out his brother’s boat! And forcing me to bring him a boat to use at the Dora show! The “Fiddler” is a 1970 13′ Whaler and we are her third owners for the past 21 years has been shrimping, crabbing and pulling skiers in the tidal creeks behind Sullivan’s Island SC.

    The boat was sold new by Martins Sea and Ski in Nisswa Minnesota and still has their shop sticker on the stern. We visited them when we attended the ACBS show at Gull Lake (and…note: I did not loan out my brothers Riva…).

    Like any good boat there are dozens of stories but the winter delivery drive from Iowa to South Carolina included a 12 hour ice bound on-road delay with two cranky kids and two labradors. The boat is part of our family and…now kinda part of Neds family as well!

    And if you know Royce, I offer proof that once he had my Whaler in his garage, a beer in his hand and…hair!

    • Ned Protexter
      Ned Protexter says:

      Gary, feel free to return the favor by loaning out Royce’s Riva or Donzi. Thanks again for letting us use your boat.

  4. Royce A. Humphreys
    Royce A. Humphreys says:

    It was so much fun loaning out someone else’s boat, but all the more satisfying since it was my brothers. It’s a good way to get back at all the abuse a younger brother had to endure growing up as the youngest. So happy that Ned, Jillian and baby to be will be back at the lakes so our group can spoil the young one!
    We start out each boat meeting with the recitation, “Hello, my name is Ned, I have a boat problem”
    By the way, my brother has the perfected his non-skid varnishing techniques. He’s always available to share his secrets!

    • Chris Mugge
      Chris Mugge says:

      A true love story. Ned failed to mention that the child was actually conceived in the Visser’s whaler, while tied up to the gnome village dock on the Dora Canal. They also mentioned the the child will be named Outrage, whether it is a boy or a girl.

  5. Floyd r turbo
    Floyd r turbo says:

    That’s a whale of a story and whale deserved birthday gifts. Congratulations, whale done. Okay, I’ll go back to bed now.

  6. Dennis Mykols
    Dennis Mykols says:

    Great story, and is similar to ours, less the “Baby” part!
    We wanted something smaller to go gunkholing and beach up on the sand dunes, which we cannot do with the 22 ft Coronado.
    Found a perfect 1984 Whaler SUPER SPORT, and my granddaughters have been using it ever since.

  7. JFKarlson
    JFKarlson says:

    Congrats on the new boat Protexters! Nice to see Royce gleefully spreading the classic boat contagion again. Will we see the Whaler at the 2019 Rendezvous (July 27th @ Arnold’s Park, Okoboji, IA)? Matt, we need some Woodyboater onesies.

    • Ned Protexter
      Ned Protexter says:

      Well, for some reason this baby thought it would be a good idea to have a due date of July 29 so unfortunately we won’t make the show this year. We do look forward to getting some fall boating in.

      I hope you will be able to enjoy the Friday cruise and Sunday event at Okoboji Classic Cars.

  8. Dick Dow
    Dick Dow says:

    I’ve been looking for that exact same set-up for about 30 years now. My “First Boat” was a 1964 13′ Whaler with a 40 hp Johnson, purchased when I was in 8th grade, I ran that boat all over the NW waters, but sold it as I was graduating from college. Of course, there have been 14 boats or so since then, but there is something about that first love… 🙂 Congratulations!

  9. Chip Stride
    Chip Stride says:

    As kids who grew up spending their summers on Wisconsin’s Lake Geneva, our parents grew tired of driving the four of us around the lake getting us where we needed to go. Like any good kids, we convinced our parents that the answer to the problem could be found just a mile away at the Gage Marine boat yard in Williams Bay Wisconsin in the form of a 13′ Whaler with a 40 hp Johnson hanging off the back. It didn’t really solve all of the logistical issues but it did give us freedom we never really expected to have. That boat became an integral part of our family until 3 years ago when we sold it to a young family looking for a way for their kids to get around their lake! The circle of life with a whaler…

  10. Wilson
    Wilson says:

    Well, not sure what happened to my first message posted this morning but I thought I had a better story…

    You see there was a NNE…Yes, NINE foot Whaler in the “Field of Dreams” at Tavares this year…Really cute boat…I admired it for three dys…and guess what…Snday after the show, it followed me home.

    We now have it at under the house at the coast. I promse to find a nice 5 HP vintage outboard and bring it back to Tavares next year.

  11. waynesworld
    waynesworld says:

    I had a 13ft whaler with an 18hp evinrude and had fun cruising the rivers on the Chesapeake bay

  12. Kevin F
    Kevin F says:

    My father bought a 16ft Hobie Cat when I was 12 to teach us how to sail. That boat was sooooo much fun and hooked me on sailing ever since.

    However, a young boy needs POWER, and to ski, and to move when the wind was tired. So I tried to convince my father to buy a power boat. He said he could not tow two boats up North at the same time, but if I could find a way……

    Many things have been accomplished in human history by challenging a young man with a problem to solve and too much time on his hands.

    So I looked, and looked, and figured, and….a 13ft Whaler was powerful enough to take us kids skiing, and it fit right between the hulls of the Hobie! We beefed up the trailer, put the Whaler between the hulls, and hitched it behind the Suburban for fun in Northern Michigan.

    We had that boat until we were too big for it to ski us, and so we bought a competition water ski boat (and another, and another, and another).

    A few years ago I bought a 14ft McKee craft (patterned after the Whaler), although not as pretty, it was a more practical.

    • Wilson
      Wilson says:

      Wehave a 14′ Hobie Turbo…. I’ll have to see if the little Whaler will fit between the hulls.

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