Photo Friday: Lake Berryessa, California

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We began the day bleary-eyed and sleepy at 630am on a Sunday to beat the traffic and weekend warriors. My good friend Danny had purchased this sexy race boat for a song from a dude desperate to purchase ANOTHER blown 454 Chevy speed-boat last year and it had been sitting in his garage, simply begging us to take her for a spin. Being a hotrod, not a soul had been towed behind her as a skier since 1964, when she was first assembled. This weekend changed that and what a hot sight it is to be pulled through a lake behind Bad Habit, little miss sexy’s moniker.

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Orange flag for safety!

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My other good friend, Jeff, did the honors by breaking her in like a gentleman. She loved it, and ran like a thoroughbred colt right out of the gate.

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We owned the lake at 8am.

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And couldn’t wipe the Cheshire smiles from our faces.

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Bad Habit is technically called a “Flat-bottomed V-Drive” because there is zero arc to her underbelly and no reverse. She only goes straight and FAST. She’s loud -obnoxiously loud- and sends trills of adrenaline down the spine of anyone that appreciates pure, unadulterated horsepower and speed (surely we aren’t alone in this?). She is also a wiley beast, and quite dangerously overpowered. We blew a hole in her transmission that day but kept on going because we deemed the damage non-critical.

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However, later on in the day we really opened her up in a totally-sweet, empty and placid cove, taking a riotous high-speed romp along the spline of the shoreline, blaring dragster noise -quite literally- for miles. We probably broke 75mph and I freaked for a second when a little hot oil sprayed up along my leg. It felt like metal shards and I’m thinking this ginormous beast of an engine is about to self-immolate in ritual suicide two feet from my bare legs. Happily, she held together.

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Later in the day, the usual wallies had rolled out of bed to recover underneath this bridge with sun and hair of the dog no doubt. Awful music was thumping from a few of the boats (see them?, they’re a bit small). We thundered about the place just to have a little peace and quiet. That five minute idle through, and dirty looks that accompanied it, was worth the trip alone.

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Got it kids? The early worm gets the bird. Every.Single.Time.

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-SVV

** All photos taken with a Canon XTi, 17-85mm lens or 10-20mm lenses, housed in a LowePro SlingShot.

*** For more Photo Friday fun, head over to Delicious Baby.

COMMENTS
  • September 25, 2009

    OMG I love Lake Berryessa!! My best friend and her hubs used to live in Northern Cal near the AFB and the lake was our spot when I went to visit 🙂 Oh man you just brought back some good memories! Happy Friday!

  • September 25, 2009
    Rebecca

    Thanks you just brought back TONS of memories of hanging at Lake Berryessa as a kid, although WE didn’t have a supercharged boat to play with! Looks like tons of fun!

  • September 25, 2009

    No one ever takes me out on a sexy little race boat. *pouts*

    🙂

  • September 25, 2009

    Now that is a cute little boat. ahem I mean super sexy and aggressive

  • September 25, 2009

    What an awesome high speed day on “Bad Habit”. Love the looks of this antique. Although it sounds (literally) like it might need a little engine work after this adventure.

  • September 25, 2009

    Sounds like you had fun!

  • September 26, 2009

    Wow, I need to go cool myself off! This post was so hot, I think it would have had the same effect even without the photos. Nice writing!!!!

  • September 26, 2009

    Loved the urgency of this post. It was fun to enjoy your grown up fun vicariously. Glad the boat held together!

  • September 27, 2009

    Been years since I’ve been out on a lake in a fast boat! Sounds like a great time.

  • September 28, 2009

    Damn, sounds like you were breaking Bad Habit left and right. Awesome post! Awesome morning!

  • December 20, 2009
    Dave

    Very nice looking boat!!! Is this boat blown? Just wondering cuz the last picture looks like the guys hair was blown off? What happen????

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