2005 Manolia Beach Messabout - Page 8

I am proud to be the official test pilot for Cecil Carnes, unfortunately I got fired this year. He brought a new array of interesting paddle boats.

The one on the right "Pink Possum" is sort of a mouse boat / flats rat / plank rat type of boat.

Next to the left is a convereted wind surfer, Cecil goes to the local thrift stores and picks up the hulls for about $5 each and makes seats for them. He then gives them out to the neighborhood kids to use as kayaks. This is the 3rd or 4th like this that he has done. I tried paddling it, but immediately fell right off.

Between them you can see a funky kayak paddle that was made from 2 crutches. What a laugh!

Now I have heard of people using kayaks as roof rack luggage carriers, but the other way around ?!?!? He picked this up at a thrift store too because it looked like a boat, and there is an 8yr old girl up the street from him that doesn't have a boat yet. Cecil said that it was a bit on the flimsy side, but with the added coaming, it stiffened right up. The oversize rudder is for directional stability, otherwise it sort of just spins. She even has emergency floatation, the bags on the sides are boat rollers for moving larger boats up and down a beach.

I tried paddling it, but sunk it right off the beach, and unfortunately had to be let go as the test pilot for my failure. :)

Here are a couple of other potential test pilots, ovbiously they didn't see my sinking.

Funny how well that works !

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