# More motorboats than a strip club



## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

Thank you yardsells, that is such a well done and excellent video, I really enjoyed watching it, along with your other videos too, thanks for sharing.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Who's that unbelievably handsome dude sitting with the super hot chick at the beginning ? 

Bwahahahaha

Your videos are the shit man !! Thanks for taking the time to edit this all together.


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## Spintowin (May 23, 2018)

BITCHIN!


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

WOW, what a neat way to float rivers !!!!!


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## jmacn (Nov 20, 2010)

Nice edit! I got lucky to see Rico's greasy lines a little further downstream.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Shit, Steph must have fallen out !


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## jmacn (Nov 20, 2010)

Haha! I wondered why she didn't join us. Lots of action in the bow of the Sammy D!


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## yardsells (Jul 14, 2014)

jmacn said:


> Nice edit! I got lucky to see Rico's greasy lines a little further downstream.


Thanks!

Rico is the man fer sher.


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

Great video and I went back to view it again.
Looks like a good time for all on the big boats.
What impressed me was the amount of gear on those big boats and the relative comfort all the riders had.
Had to be plush camping on the other hand, moving all that gear around had to take strong folks helping each other.
Good times on the rivers with iron horses doing the on water work.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Yep, riding in style for sure, it was the very first trip I had been on where I could take anything I wanted, regardless of weight. We carried a generator for chrissake LOL. The camps didn't look all that different from a camp with rafts, the same gear you'd normally take, but a lot less tying things in as the stuff you don't need to get to during the day, is below decks. Now, you could bring things like EZ up canopies, and more creature comfort things that you can't, or wouldn't on a raft, but we don't necessarily need all the trappings to have fun on the rivers.
Another nicety about motor trips is you don't worry if the breeze comes up while underway, a twist of the wrist is all you need.


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## yardsells (Jul 14, 2014)

MNichols basically summed it up.

Speaking of carrying capacity, on our last grand trip, we had over 700 lbs of ice alone for cocktails.


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## pwolfehagen (Sep 18, 2018)

A superb video as always John. Thanks for putting it together. I'll have to admit I was slightly disappointed that the Greyhound Station did not make an appearance. But things were a little blurry at that point.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

pwolfehagen said:


> A superb video as always John. Thanks for putting it together. I'll have to admit I was slightly disappointed that the Greyhound Station did not make an appearance. But things were a little blurry at that point.


That was a fun night for sure... I was sitting on John's boat wondering to myself, why are they running the generator on the beach?... That was a wonderful surprise Paul !!


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## yardsells (Jul 14, 2014)

pwolfehagen said:


> I'll have to admit I was slightly disappointed that the Greyhound Station did not make an appearance.


Amen. Full juice bar with fresh pink grapefruit juiced to order. Are you kidding me?! Those greyhounds distracted me from capturing the moment! I'll do better next time.

At least the frozen Popsicles on day 5 made an appearance!

Memorial day Cataract 2021!!!


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## jspoon14 (Aug 5, 2012)

Nice video, thanks for posting the WW section. I was wondering what that would look like from a motor rig. I can't wait to get mine on the water!


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## studytime (Oct 4, 2010)

I hope they ban those dumb boats on rivers. Just go motor around a lake. Blast through your own wake.


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## yardsells (Jul 14, 2014)

studytime said:


> I hope they ban those dumb boats on rivers. Just go motor around a lake. Blast through your own wake.


Bah humbug.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

What he said... Much humbug....


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## 2tomcat2 (May 27, 2012)

How about...."to each its own" and a little bit of tolerance (not necessarily agreement) from all?


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## jspoon14 (Aug 5, 2012)

Hey, we don't complain when you row by us!


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

Altho one of the big Snout rigs are way out of my fun money budget, I must admit that
a little 3 hp Tohatsu on back of my JPW mini cat is looking more interesting the older and
more beat up physically I get. Motor the flats and row the rapids looks like a good deal 
right now.


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## yardsells (Jul 14, 2014)

okieboater said:


> a little 3 hp Tohatsu on back of my JPW mini cat


We do an annual low water cat in the fall and little motors on little boats is the only way to go. Not trying to set speed records, just keep the pod moving.
One of the social benefits of the motor pod is the barge. Everyone gets to move from boat to boat and visit.
Great times for sure.


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

studytime said:


> I hope they ban those dumb boats on rivers. Just go motor around a lake. Blast through your own wake.


Really, the G-Rig's, S-Rig's(Ron Smith) and J-Rig's(Jack Curry) have been around since the 60's, they were built for river running, and still used to date, the G-Rig(Gerogie White) not so much.


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## 2tomcat2 (May 27, 2012)

Could you tell the story about how the "Rigs" came to be and a little bit about Georgie White?


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## yardsells (Jul 14, 2014)

Ooooh, yeah. Raymo give us the scoop buddy!


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

Have patience, I'm working on it, I had to go to the store and buy a couple more note books, I don't own a computer. I'm on my second draft.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

All of the original boat designs were fashioned out of the military surplus bridge pontoons available after WWII.

J stands for Jack as in Jack Currey the guy who started Western. The tubes on his boats are up turned on both ends except for the middle tube which has the up-turn, or snout, cut off in order to attach a transom for the motor.

G stands for Georgie and her boat was made of 3 doughnut pontoons lashed together into a truly giant boat. Usually a 38 in the middle and a 33' on either side.

S stands for Smith (the guy who started Grand Canyon Expeditions) or Sanderson (A precursor to Wilderness) depending on whose talking. This boat is a hybrid of Georgie's doughnut pontoons and 2 of Currey's tubes that have one of the snouts cut off. 2/3 of one of Currey's old double snouted tubes became known as a snout tube and the standard length is 22'. 22' is what was left after cutting one of the "snouts" off of the original tubes. The donuts by themselves were a bit unstable thus a snout tube was added to each side for stability. The original donuts also had floors in them and they were run this way for a number of years. Bailing those babies must have really sucked. Sanderson and Hatch both claim to be the first to have figured out the self-bailing technology for the big boats.

A boat fashioned out of 2, or 2 1/2 of the snout tubes became known as a snout rig. It is also occasionally refereed to as a " baby J" but usually the term "baby J" is used to describe a boat which is made with 4 to 4 1/2 snout tubes. The 1/2 tubes are the middle tube and can be left in, or out, depending on the frame used in the boat. The back 1/2 has to be removed to put on a frame with a transom. Snout rigs are not very common in GC, but you'll see more of them up in Cat. Many companies used to row these beasts as well as 33' and 22' donuts. Diamond and AZRA were the last to row these in GC.

And now for Straton's version of the S-rig. The side tubes are necessary for a stable boat but they add drag compared to running a doughnut without them as used to be commonly done. He pulled the tubes up out of the water to reduce the drag. When you're going to zip through the canyon as fast as Tour West does, you need to be able to go fast.

I'm sure the other guys can add more, but there's a primer.


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

Thank you MNichols, very accurate history, the J tubes used by Western came from the Korean War I believe, because the tags hanging on the D rings when Adventure Bound purchased 6 from Western had Korea on them, some were in better shape than others. Here is a photo of Mike and J.Bray rowing Warm Springs rapid while I was holding on for dear life in the back getting ready to throw the bow line to two other guides at the bottom of WS to pull us in. The minute you throw the rope to them, they run to the biggest bolder or tree to wrap the rope around to stop the 30 ft pontoon's and A-rigs, because the sheer size, speed and weight of the boat would drag all three guides into the river, ripping your fingers and hands off your arms if you just hung onto the rope. This day we had the passengers walk around Warm Springs because of high water. Unfortunately on this day we missed our line and dropped into the huge hole they call May-tag now, it was eating our lunch big time, I think the boat disappeared a few times with us still on top hanging on for dear life, after day's(it felt like)it finally spit us out, minus a couple oars and a couple loads of shit in our pants, we missed the landing spot and finally pulled over down river. On this trip we had one A-rig(pictured )and four pontoon's. At high water we would run one boat at a time and walk the passengers around, than jump on our individual boats and carry on down the river. Good times for sure.




  








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raymo


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Nov 13, 2020


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## yardsells (Jul 14, 2014)

Raymo: you're so bad ass! After all this covid shit, let's get together and I'd love to go through pictures and hear stories.

Kinda like when you consulted on the s rig we built but with more talking and less working.


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## yardsells (Jul 14, 2014)

Here's what an original surplus 3 pack looks like. This is what my rig started out looking like.


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

John, when I see pictures of the big rubber like that, image's of gallons of Gaco silver paint, N7 glue and paint thinner, with pink elephants dancing on the tubes from all the fumes, pop's into my head, definitely crazy good times. Yes, for sure we have to get together, that would be fun. After the Holidays would be great.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

I want to be a fly on the wall for that too lol


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