It’s been a long series of silly misadventures but our boat has finally been launched!

Our new engine requires a slow break-in period so we took a leisurely trip upriver for a couple of hours this afternoon, against the current, so we had the comfort of knowing we could drift back with the current to town should anything go wrong!

We’ve got a Stryker Pro 500 boat from Stryker Boats in Aldergrove, British Columbia. It is a 16-foot-long inflatable boat. It’s got a super reinforced bottom to prevent rock punctures, and has tons of handles, hooks, strap points, and mounts to make it really adaptable. It is supposed to be somewhat portable and can fold up. It has rear wheels that flip down so you should be able to lift up the front and maneuver it around.

But before Jeff even had everything configured and set up the way he wanted, it was pretty clear the boat is just way too heavy to be a nicely portable boat. Even without the motor mounted. So Jeff zipped down to Whitehorse this week to buy a boat trailer for it.

Jeff is well skilled with boats so I just sat on the bench up front and watched out for trees and logs coming down the river.

It was HOT this afternoon. I sprayed my legs with 50+ sunscreen three times while we were on the river because they looked like I should be able to smell the meat cooking, but they are fine!

At one point early in the trip, the motor suddenly sounded super loud! But it was just a float plane taking off behind us. It headed straight for us but took off before running us over. (whew)

The boat came with a few benches you can move around, and Jeff popped open a lawnchair at one point to see if he preferred that. We may upgrade to actual boat chairs that can be mounted on the tongue and groove removal aluminum floor panels down the road.

Jeff still has a fish finder so he had it set up for our inaugural run today! There were many, many fish! Mostly along town, so maybe they were coming out of the Klondike River.

It was fairly easy to launch and get back on the trailer. It seems easier to move around compared to the old steel hull boat we had before.

Now the motor is mostly broken in! It’s impressively quiet. It’s a 40-horsepower Yahama four-stroke. Super heavy. Jeff said it only took about 30% of the throttle to keep us going about 14 km/hr against the mighty Yukon River current. After the first two hours of slow break-in, he was easily able to get the boat up on plane without much throttle. He seems pretty happy!

There are a few other people around here with Stryker boats. Here are some of the more traditional Yukon River boats you’ll see though:

Coming for a ride? Apparently this boat has a weight capacity of 4155 pounds and can carry a maximum of 14 people! It came with a bimini shade top we have yet to install too!