Ric Montoya, left, and Jay Smith prepare the "Tasmanian Devil" for one of its first runs.
Sitting on top of the van was a 23' long one-piece solid Cedar Canoe. The name of the newly acquired vessel was the Tasmanian Devil. Taz's finish is natural wood with green trim and weighs approximately 180 pounds.
As Taz and I left the town of Taholah and the Indian Reservation, people were waving as I passed by and even the police tooted their horn as they passed me on the highway. I was so excited that was finally going to get to go for a ride in a canoe that I was having a hard time paying attention to my driving. I kept catching myself speeding at 15 to 20 mph over the speed limit. I guess I was just in a hurry to show the family the newly acquired vessel. When we arrived home my family and in-laws came out to take a look at the Canoe. They began to ask questions and I answered their questions as if I was a veteran Racer. But the fact was that I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing.
The following week I cut the transom board down to the same height as my C Stock Runabout and I took a new Yamato 302 out of the box and mounted it on the transom of the canoe. The next issue was the steering and throttle. The Indians all race using the stock tiller arm and throttle control. I took the Yamato steering bar and cut it in half and bent it tighter to the motor so that it would stick out of the front of the motor. I welded a 7/8" pipe to the end of the steering bar to make it long enough to be like a normal tiller handle. I then went down to the local mini bike shop and bought a twist grip throttle and mounted it on the end of the pipe. Ta-Dah! We are ready to go.
I called up Jay Smith and Wayne Peeters and explained what I had and asked if they would meet me at the Snohomish River in Everett to help pit crew for the first test ride. They both said that they wouldn't miss it for the world. When we all arrived at the river, they looked over the canoe and told me I was crazy. We unloaded the canoe and prepared her for our first adventure.
When I climbed in the canoe it was like trying to balance a bicycle when it's not moving. After a few seconds I got a feel for keeping it right side up and I sat down on the seat. At this point, there is only an inch of freeboard at the aft end of the canoe. I was still wiggling, trying to keep the canoe right side up, but water was splashing over the sides. I looked at Jay Smith who was in charge of starting the motor, and I said, "Oh what the hell, you better start the motor before I sink." Jay pulled the starter rope on the motor and it fired right up. I wasn't prepared for the torque of the motor tipping the canoe, and she took on about a gallon of water over the side before I managed to compensate and keep the canoe right side up. The river had a small amount of wave action and as I powered up on plane, the canoe started to bounce from the waves and the bow of the canoe started to whip like a radio antenna. My first thought was ‘what keeps this log from splitting from all this flexing?’ As my nerves settled a bit, I powered up more and was fully planing. When I came to the first turn in the river I thought, ‘how am I going to turn this 23 foot long thing around?’ I looked like a kid trying his first turn on a bicycle and the canoe took on a little more water over the sides. After several laps up and down the river, I decided it was time to take a break. As I approached the shore, the pit crew was cheering and clapping and once I was safely on ground from completing my FIRST RIDE, we decided it was time for a beer.