Inner Child Toy Boat Question?

[Sail123]

Who here used to have toy boats in the bathtub as a kid?

I am taking a bath and I just finished a bottle of water. As I whim, I tossed the water bottle in the water and the jets are pushing it around while I read forum pages. As I did this, I remembered for the first time as an adult, I had toy boats. Wind up ones, battery ones, plain ones. I even had a float plane.

Now as an adult, I still play with boats.

Has your childhood continued into your adult boating life? If you want to unlock a childhood memory, drop a water bottle in the tub. It was a de ja voo moment for me.

 

[Joe]

Hmmm.... that means I'd have to take a bath, and I'm a shower guy, heh heh.

 

[Gary_H]

I used to play with my toy boats in the tub all the time and it was fun.....but then my wife started making fun of me so I quit.

 

[whatfiero]

Toy Boats

I have a 6 year old son and I am finding it harder and harder to find toy boats especially ones that float for my son to play with ; he or we only have one sail boat of which floats and we can play with the fancy ones mounted on a display ; when removed just sink we do have a barbie boat of which I spray painted navy blue (it was pink ) that floats the most realistically

 

[Sunbird22358]

I always had lots of toy boats when I was young, still do.... but now they are controlled by radios not a string!

On the subject of a "BARBIE" boat, the ultimate one was the HOBIE CAT catamaran that came out in the mid-1970s. No, I didn't have one, but my sister did and it was COOL!! We later found out that if we replaced the rudders with ones that were a bit deeper, the toy actually sailed halfway decent. If you ever find one on eBay or somewhere, the only real "girly" detail was the vinyl sail, the hulls were yellow and the trampoline was orange.....
When I was 5, my Grandfather gave me 2 toy sailboats for my birthday, they were made by ELDON, and one was a catamaran, the other a deep-keel monohull. Sisterships show up a lot on eBay and if you don't mind having to make new sails or masts..... can be quite reasonable, I bought a copy of my old catamaran for like $8.00. It was missing the rig and the rudders assembly, but memories of my old toy gave me enough info to make those parts from scratch (still working on the sails).
I went through a stage....it lasted many years, of building all sorts of sailing models from solid blocks of Balsa wood, later hollow hulls of balsa sheet stock. They sailed pretty good too! I even built a few......Powerboats!
The pics below show sisterships of my ELDON toy boats, and a not so great scan of a 1976 Sears Christmas catalog page that shows a Barbie Hobie Cat like my Sister's. (PS: I built the Dumas brand model Hobie 14 many years ago, that could easily outsail my sister's cat....I guess, but my model was about half the size of her toy.)

 

[Ken Cross]

I had lots of toys as a kid, but I don't remember a boat.
I've been a boat nut since my grandpa took me fishing boat when I was about 4.
Sailing took a bit longer. My wife was skeptical of sailboats until we bought one about 12 years ago. It was a good decision.

Ken

 

[Squidd]

Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat

 

[Quebec1]

I had numerous baking soda submarines when I was a kid. I think they came from cereal boxes. I also remember making wooden boats to play with in the spring water puddles in front of our store in Manitoba. Latter on I served on HMCS destroyers where I manned the wheel a few times. Subsequently I got a sail board,a few small sail boats and the current 26m. Funny I still can't help myself from looking at the boats for sail sites when I'm not sailing.

 

[Bad Obsession]

I grew up around boats, grew up on the water, and grew up sailing. If I had more money than I knew what to do with it I would probably own more boats than cars.

Traced part of my family back. Found out that I had Norse ancestors. This explains a lot because most of my family on that side of the family is drawn to boats and water.

 

[Richard Bryer]

How about that- two of us who played with boats as children in Manitoba? I grew up in small town Manitoba ( Russell) . When spring thaw came ( after about 9 months of winter!), we could float little wooden boats we carved out of sticks all the way from the east end of town to the west end in the little riverlets that ran at the edge of the streets ( no curbs and gutters) The big trick was getting through the culverts.

 

[bailing bucket]

I think I had a toy submarine and destroyer I'd battle with in my bathtub. I would act out scenes from the WWII documentaries I'd watch with my grandfather. It's funny, I havn't thought about it in years...thanks for the trip down memory lane.

 

[Ray Bowles]

I had the submarine. When my brother squeezed off his little bubbles that he called depth charges the sub would roll over and sink.

 

[Quebec1]

I was raised in Vassar.