Lief Erickson Returns to North America

Unlike Leif Erikson from 1000 years ago, it is an 11-year-old Lief Fisher Erickson (the i-before-e rule came later) approaching our dock on the River in an ever so small boat. According to Fisher, “it measures maybe 4 ft long and maybe like a 3 ft width, with lots of freeboard,” and according to his parents, it weighs a ton. He claims it can accommodate up to 4 people, but there are sleeping accommodations for only 1 or 2 (under the open sky). “It has a working motor that can attach to it. On the top speed, it’s a perfect trolling speed.”

The idea came from knowing that his uncle had built a boat at his age, so the pressure was on him to continue the family tradition. I asked him who built the boat, and he takes full credit – with some help from Mom with the power tools. It is a Jon style boat, only Fisher wanted a curved hull, to improve aesthetics and sea worthiness.

After a trip to the lumber yard, viewing a YouTube video on how to build a smaller version of the boat, and 10 days of work later, Wave Tamer was born. When I claimed that all wooden boats leak, he countered, not mine. Lief has already caught a 20-inch walleye, which “we ate the night we got it.”

When I asked what advice he would provide to someone thinking about building their own boat, he said,

“you definitely need to be prepared and know how you are going to do it before you get the stuff. We got the stuff and then decided the length.”

What a great lesson to learn from the next generation of River Rats!

By Dane Zabriskie, Prince Regent Island.

Like many of us, Dane Zabriskie was shaped by his family, education, profession, and the St. Lawrence River, where he has summered annually for more than 45 50years. And we happen to know when not at the island, Dane can be found on a Pennsylvania golf course as often as possible.

Dane is also put to work each month as one of our loyal proof-readers! His work is much appreciated!

(Editor's note:  What fun, I happen to look up Leif in Wikipedia and sure enough it was at least 1000 years ago . . . "Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (c. 970s – c. 1018 to 1025), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus.")