Every childhood should be marked with a great boating adventure. The North Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America agrees. The council operates Camp Echockotee, a land-based summer camp, but realized they weren’t tapping into all of the local natural resources.
“Just about every Boy Scout council in the United States that has a major geographic feature close by, uses it in some way within their program,” says Maurice “Mouse” Sterling, vice-president of the North Florida Council. “Here we sit with one of the most beautiful rivers in the country, the St. John’s River, and we were not using it.”
The council challenged a committee to come up with an idea to incorporate the St. John’s River into the scouting program. The committee looked at many options, including sailboats, canoes and houseboats, and came to the conclusion a kayak adventure was the best option. But there was one alternative they hadn’t considered yet and that was a custom-built pontoon.
In a moment of kismet, committee member Andy Sabol had lunch with Bob Candler, a scout with over 50 years of service. Together, the two men came up with the idea of a Huck Finn Adventure, where scouts would actually live on a river raft for a week at a time. Since Candler had spent time on the Mississippi River during his youth, he had a great idea of what the Huck Finn raft should look like and immediately volunteered to design a raft suitable to meet the challenge. Completely donating his time to draw up these plans, Candler spent the next 20 months working on the project. His preliminary design was enough for the excited committee to give their approval and backing to this new project.
Discovering PlayCraft
In the second twist of fate, Candler ran into Jim Horton with Performance Pontoon & Deckboats LLC at the Jacksonville Boat Show during the research phase of the project. The two men started discussing the plans to build a raft suitable for living on and Horton knew just the thing. As a dealer who proudly represents PlayCraft pontoons in Central Florida, Horton could vouch for the stellar reputation of the Missouri-based company.
“Obviously, PlayCraft is known for custom high-performance platform-style boats,” says Horton. “I told Bob the company also does other unique custom builds and would love to partner on this project.”
Once the approval and funding was secured from the executive board, Candler and Horton got right to work. The challenge was to design a raft large enough to support eight scouts, two volunteer adults and a Coast Guard certified boat captain. The raft needed to contain a grill, food storage and prep areas, dish washing counter, equipment and personal gear, waterproof storage and a portable enclosed head. The deck area needed to accommodate six tents for nighttime use and daytime storage.
Candler also gave unstintingly of his time, energy and money for copies, blueprints, etc., staying up until late in the night. He spent hours going to different locations to find equipment for the raft and he even painted the cabinets, plus designed and built the frame for the portable toilet to support the project.
Huck Finn Raft 2.0
The finished product ended up being two, 26-foot pontoon boats that attach together like floating docks with power on one of the pontoons. Once attached, only the perimeter has a railing, which leaves an open 26- by 17-foot deck area, much like a Huck Finn Raft. PlayCraft also built the raft-control center required for the outboard motor and all the electronics needed.
The project was much more complicated than attaching two pontoons together. Major challenges arose during the design process, including how to attach the pontoon boats.
“We ended up using a piano hinge to hold the pontoons together,” says Candler. “This allows the boat to give just enough on the waves for a comfortable ride, but it ended up being an extra $2,000.”
Needing Approval
That wasn’t the only added expense. The council ended up having to pay about $5,000 to get all the certification necessary for Coast Guard approval. Since this is a paid-passenger vessel, the Coast Guard had to approve the joining, the raft and the height of railings. All in all, the scouts put $40,000 into this boat, which included the certification, the two PlayCraft pontoon boats and the Yamaha 50hp engine. The proper certifications were a one-time expense which will be helpful as the council is already considering a second raft to use next summer.
The approval process ended up taking much longer than anticipated. Once the boat was entirely built, the Coast Guard came back and said a boat for hire had to have a rail height of at least 4 feet, a fact that had not been mentioned earlier. Like a standard pontoon, this boat has a rail height of 29 inches. Luckily, Candler was able to work with the Coast Guard to get an exemption by providing a buffer between the passenger and the railing. They incorporated all the storage, the water basin and head to stand between the scouts and the rails.
When all was said and done, this project took 15 months.
“The patience of PlayCraft and Jim Horton helped make this project possible,” says Candler. “When you work with a committee, you have to answer a lot of questions from a lot of people. Plus, because of the certification, there was a point where we thought we would not be able to build it. But PlayCraft helped us get it done and I would recommend this great company to anyone.”
Full Schedule
During the building process, Sabol started constructing a week-long program for the boys.
“You just can’t expect them to lay around on a raft while it travels down the river,” says Sabol.
The committee-member developed key contacts in the Florida community and sold the “Huck Finn Adventure” concept. The inaugural program contained an entire week of fun experiences including a tour of the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, a presentation by a professional saltwater fishing guide, an evening presentation by a professional alligator trapper, a tour of the NFL Jaguar stadium and lunch with the Jaguars, a presentation by the country’s foremost expert on manatees, a morning scavenger hunt at the Jacksonville Zoological Gardens, and so much more.
During the entire trip, the scouts cook, eat and sleep on the boat. The grand total is 45 to 50 miles with the boat traveling north on an average of seven to ten miles per day. A typical day means getting up, making breakfast, cleaning up, getting off the boat for a daily adventure and then getting back onboard to cook dinner and set up tents. After dinner, the Scouts pull into a cove or anchor behind an island to sleep for the night.
“Sleeping in tents on the boat is actually extremely comfortable,” says Candler with a smile. “It’s like sleeping on a padded carpet in you den.”
Moving Forward
This year in its inaugural season the boat only made the trip once, but the goal for next year is fill it up for six different, one-week trips and possibly add a second boat to make a south-bound journey.
Before the official raft launch, the Boy Scouts held a christening party with bagpipe salute and named the boat Osprey. This raft is now an integral part of the North Florida Council’s St. John’s River Base aquatics program at Camp Echockotee.
“This idea was made possible by the flexible nature of the pontoon boat design, great vision on the part of the Boy Scout leadership and PlayCraft's willingness to custom build,” says Horton.
The cost to stay at the land-based camp is roughly $250. This water adventure will set you back only $100 more and includes all the food, a custom hat and an embroidered t-shirt. While scouts can work on tasks that go towards a merit badge, the overall goal of the trip is to have a good time.
