Childrens Boats & Cradles With Radio Controls And 5200 No-Soak Bottoms… What The Heck?

Our friend and fellow Woody Boater Jim Frechette lit the fuse on an area of the hobby we don’t normally report on here at Woody Boater – Childrens Boats. And folks around the country are getting on board to share their stories, which is fantastic.

Here’s a short story about a very cool boat from fellow Woody Boater (and full size boat builder) Tom Horn in Portland, Oregon.
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Texx – I see we have a baby boat shoot out here on Woody Boater. I will put mine up against all of those hobby horse models I have seen so far!

I built mine for our grand kids and have taken it to some of the local shows. It is powered by a 12V battery hooked to a Minn Koda electric trolling motor with a shaft, strut and rudder all under the hull. The prop is one of those four bladed plastic high performance props that come on those trailer hitch doohickeys. My original intent was to make it into one of those oscillating kids rides that you put the quarter in but Grandma didn’t think I should charge the kids a quarter.

Then I started thinking “what would I want if I were that little” so next thing you know (with a few more dollars and lots of time) I had to make it run and of course we need some brass hardware just like Grandpa’s full size runabout. No, no ……… on my boat. Oh never mind. The boat is controlled from the cockpit or by radio control from the beach. We have run it in a local pond and on Lake Oswego although I need to invest in a better radio with more range.

I was going to race Mike Mayer in his Century Arabian during the Lake Oswego show a few years ago but I couldn’t get a life jacket on my race driver Roscoe (pictured below with the Captains hat). Roscoe wasn’t really on his best behavior that day, I found him later over by Mike’s Century sniffing around, and… Well ……………… that is another story.

Tom Horn – Portland, OR

Thanks Tom for the great story. And speaking of Mr. Mike Mayer – Not to be outdone, we also received a few photos of the custom one-off cradle / boat that Mike built for his son Porter…
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Texx – Here’s a few pictures of my kids in the cradle I built for my son Porter before he was born. It’s even got a 5200 bottom!! What was I thinking? Oh, I know , I was thinking I would put it in the water at a boat show, sans kid.

Thanks Mike – It looks like this is slowly becoming kids cradle / boat week here at Woody Boater.

Oh – And if you prefer cool full-size wooden boats, here’s Grandpa Tom Horn’s full size runabout, a 22′ Thorn Boat Design named “Blackthorn”.

Great stuff guys! – Texx