Random Trinket - Airguide Boat Speedometer

Another bit of Green Lake nostalgia that's been with me for a long time.

This simple Airguide boat speedometer was originally installed on my Grandpa's 14' - 15' Lund fishing boat that he purchased new back in the late 60s. At the time, the little red fishing boat with a eye-searing turquoise interior and unforgiving marine plywood bench seats had a steering console and remote controls for the mighty 20 HP Johnson outboard. Somewhere along the way, the console was removed and the boat converted over to a tiller-steer model. My guess is that my Uncle Steve, a boat hot-rodder if there ever was one, likely removed it in an effort to lighten the boat by, oh, a whopping fifteen pounds or so. Or it could have happened when he spent a weekend when my grandparents were away and took the 50 HP motor off my grandpa's pontoon boat and placed it on the Lund (which incidentally had a maximum HP rating of 30 HP).

me on Green Lake in the Lund, summer '86

We were cleaning out the barn/garage at Green Lake one summer and took the console out to bring to the dump. I quickly grabbed a slotted screwdriver and took this nice chunk of chrome-plated brass, plastic and glass home with me, where it decorated my teenage bedroom wall - after I permanently disabled it by hacksawing off the brass nipple off the back. D'oh! If it did function, it'd show the Lund maxing out at about 25 MPH, which felt like about 50. Thankfully these can still be found on eBay - just as this particular speedometer can still be found hanging from a small nail on my garage wall.