My earliest memory of boating on the Great South Bay was in the early 1960s. I grew up in Copiague, south of Merrick Road, close to Tanner Park. My first experience owning a boat was with my friend Dennis. I was 10 years old when he was 11. It wasn’t the fastest boat, but it was seaworthy.
In those days, going fast was how fast we could row. I lived on Jervis Avenue and Dock Street, and Dennis lived over my backyard fence on Earl Place. The main canal was Howells Creek, which ended near Merrick Road. Going south, Howells Creek ended at the new boat basin and boating ramp just east of Tanner Park.
The east side of Howells Creek was mostly marshland before they built the new condos on West Drive. The west side was primarily bulkheaded for the houses on Baylawn Ave. There was marshland at the south end of Howells Creek, just before the boat basin. We hammered wooden poles into the marsh and tied up the boat for a free dock slip––a great price in 1962.
Summer days that year went by fast. We rowed up and down the canal and swam anytime we could with Dennis’s brother Mike and our friend Richie. After a few years, I bought a 12-foot boat and a 5.5-hp Evinrude outboard motor. I built a trailer from scrap wood from the new houses they were building at the end of Jervis Avenue.
When school was over, I prepped the boat for launching. The kids in my neighborhood would help me push the trailer to the end of Dock Street. I lost the free dock slip in the marsh but got a slip from Mr. Drake at the end of Dock Street. He must’ve liked me. My rent was clams, crabs, and sometimes eels. My friend Richie, who lived across the street, helped me with clamming and crabbing. Saving money from selling clams and mowing lawns, I bought a 14-foot boat with an 8-hp outboard motor.
The Great South Bay was our playground every summer. Richie and I would go to Hemlock Cove through West Fox Creek, directly across the bay from Copiague Beach. It was a shortcut between the islands and the state channel east of Hemlock Cove. We spent days swimming in the ocean and riding our inflatable canvas riffs––no boogie boards then!
Then, I bought a 15-foot Lyman boat from my friend Freddy. It had a 40-hp Johnson motor, an electric starter, steering, and controls. I learned how to put wool caulking into the lap streak hull and put putty over the seams. When that was done, you had to put the boat in the water so the wood could swell and the boat didn’t leak. By then, I was in my late teens, and bay life was still fun for Richie and me. I was still clamming and crabbing, and my rent was still getting clams and fish for Mr. and Mrs. Drake.
My purchase of a fiberglass boat meant no more caulking and using copper bottom paint before I put the boat in the water for the season. Richie and I tried clamming professionally that summer. While we didn’t do that badly, the flat-bottom Garvy boat I had broken apart at the seam due to rough waters. Luckily, it didn’t sink, but our clamming career was over.
I owned many boats in my 20s. When I moved to West Islip, I lost my dock slip rent from clams to cash. We enjoyed Frank and Dick’s, and the State Channel Marina Bar and Restaurant at the end of the Babylon cut, where it met the state channel. The bar’s end would sometimes go underwater during a full moon high tide. It didn’t seem to bother any of the customers.
Boating every summer became a way of life. I went to Fire Island by boat for the first time with my friend Tony. We went to Kismet from my dock slip in Babylon, was a long cruise for two Copiague guys. We spent many days at the Sore Thumb, Democrat Point, and Kismet at that time.
When my son was three months old and my daughter was two and a half, we decided to take a weeklong vacation on Fire Island starting at Watch Hill. He had a 25-foot Cruiser, and I had a 25-foot Sun Runner. We also stopped at Sailors Haven and Atlantique. That was the first time we had spent seven days on a boat without going back to the mainland.
I started spending my summers on my boat in Atlantique in 1987. Spending summers there with my family was perfect. By making friends with other boaters at the Atlantique Marina, we traveled to places like West Hampton, Shelter Island, Sag Harbor, Greenport, and Montauk–– as well as Block Island and Newport, Rhode Island.
I still enjoy Fire Island and boating. My children are grown, and now my grandkids enjoy time on the bay boating. My family enjoyed every trip and had a lifetime of memories.
New boaters seem to come every year.
