11
May
2011
2011
Red Air Boat
As a kid I used to watch a TV show called Gentle Ben, you know the one about the kid and the 650lb black bear. Well OK, um maybe I’m dating myself. Anyhow, they used to blast themselves around the Florida everglades in a cool fan powered boat just like this one. From what I understand these Air or Fan Boats are used in the off season around Muskoka and Georgian Bay so people can still make it out to their islands or remote properties. They are also good for search and rescue missions allowing access where a normal boat can’t go or when the ice is thin. I spotted this one up near the Windermere House.
In: in and around muskoka ontario, on the water, tripin around towns
lol…Gentle Ben! Yes, you are dating yourself Ed…
Cool boat, ominous looking clouds!
Cheers
Sweet! And they are quiet, aren’t they, relatively speaking?!
And, yes, I remember Ben.
I remember Gentle Ben very well. One of my favorite shows as a youth, and the airboats were one of the reasons I loved it. Someone had an airboat much like the one in your picture, only a little shallower and wider on our cottage lake years ago. As I recall it was exceptionally loud and compared to the ones on Gentle Ben, it seemed exceptionally slow. But a cool looking boat nonetheless and certainly able to go where conventional prop boats couldn’t.