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| My youngest brother Tori and our Dad with the Sea Doo in about 1974 |
My Sea Doo adventures began in 1974...
From 1964 to 1974, I lived in Anchorage, Alaska. From
about 1969 onward, many of our weekends were spent at Big Lake, Alaska about 45 miles north of Anchorage where we
had a cabin right on the lake.
Around 1973 or 1974, my dad acquired two Sea Doo's, a 1968 Model 320, and a
1969 Model 372. The photo above is probably one of the earliest photos showing the 372 in nearly new condition.
(That's my youngest brother, Tori, and his very first fish, in about 1974.) At some point early-on, my dad got rid of
the "320," but we kept the "372."
At that time, the Sea Doo's had a tremendous reputation for blowing up (exploding) when you
started them. So, my dad never bought batteries for them, which kept us from being able to use the electric starter
and probably kept us safe. I can still remember him warning us that the Sea Doo's were prone to explode when started,
and so we couldn't use the electric start. Instead we had to lift the seat for a minute or 2 to ventilate the bilge/engine
compartment prior to using the rope pull starter.
Every year in September my dad would drag the Sea Doo's out of the lake, up the bank, and into
the trees next to the cabin. Then when the lake ice would disappear in the late Spring, we'd drag them back down to the
water, get 'em running and then put them in for the Summer. Not a very nice life for a Sea Doo by any stretch of
the imagination!
| Circa 1977 Big Lake Alaska |
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| My brother Tori at about age 6 |
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| Oh the hours I spent working on the darn thing! |
By the Summer of 1987, neither had been running in quite a while and both were in pretty rough
shape cosmetically. The nicer one, one that had reverse, was missing the entire seat, and it had a big gash in the front
where it had been crashed into the back of the ski boat during an errant docking manuever.
I was living here in southern California at the time and had driven up to Alaska for the Summer.
I was getting to be a pretty good mechanic and was determined to get one Sea Doo going again and
ride it as much as possible.
Well, that became quite a challenge. There was a problem with the dual points, or the
backing plate for them, and they would loose their point gap after 30 minutes of riding time. I should have taken the
engine out and removed the flywheel so I could repair the fault. Instead I opted to adjust the points in the hull.
Not a fun task, I assure you. Even less fun when you wind up doing it several times a day.
We did get to ride it quite a bit, but in the end, I gave up. I didn't have the tools
or the knowledge to pull the engine (although it seems very simple now), and in 1987, I figured no one would have any parts
for the thing anyway since it hadn't been built in 18 years and no one even knew what it was. (Bombardier didn't produce
another Sea Doo until 1988)
That was the last saw of the old Sea Doo, and I'm guessing it's still sitting
there to this day. Really a shame, especially considering how rare they are.
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