Under the Needle: Amphicars make a splash on boating's big day

It seemed almost redundant to head into more water, given the weather's wet response to Saturday's opening of boating season, the annual Seattle ritual that asks, "When was it that boating season closed, anyway?"

But a trip into standing water is the point, after all. And even the rain is a time in the sun for a local club of Amphicar owners who live for the moment when they drive their cars straight down a boat ramp and into the startled consciousness of witnesses.

It isn't every car that has a manual transmission, seats four and needs life preservers. It isn't every car that demands a bilge pump inspection before trips.

And it isn't every club that wants to be the opening day jesters, the 5 mph antidote to 80-foot midlife crises, ski boat showoffs and multimasted pretense. Indeed, the whole point for the Amphicar owners is to claim as their own a little slice of limbo between land and sea.

"It's not a good car and it's not a good boat," said a smiling Bill Capron of Bellevue. "But it does just fine."

Amphicar owners estimate they've been launching on the season's official opening day for the better part of a decade. On Saturday, three had arrived by 11 a.m. in Gas Works Park, but one more was expected for the noon departure from a nearby public ramp.

Mount Vernon's Larry and Nancy Solheim purchased their Amphicar in 1994 and had it up and running (and floating) in six months. Larry said he'd seen the odd German convertible as a young man in the 1960s and always wanted one.

When he bought the car, the community came with it.

"Everyone with one of these," he said as rain spattered on the windshield, "knows everyone else who has one."

All 3,878 Amphicars completed were built in Germany between 1961 and 1968. Importers brought most of those to Canada and the U.S. All were convertibles with a small, rear-engine four-cylinder Triumph motor, twin props for the water and a four-speed transmission for the road.

Critics called the Amphicar the worst of both worlds.

Unofficially, the factory designated the model a 770, meaning it could go a maximum of 7 mph in the water and 70 on land. Both figures are optimistic, owners say.

"In the water maybe 5 mph max," said Capron, an auto repair shop owner. "No water skiing."

Added John "Capt. Jack" Hein, "I don't think these cars can go 70 without going out of control. We like to think of it as the fastest car on the water and fastest boat on the road."

Hein, 64, said he regularly fishes from his Amphicar. Indeed, when the retired Alaska bush pilot purchased the car in 2003, he eventually landed its owner, too.

"We got married in 2005. So she got the car back in her family."

Amphicar owners estimate about 10 of them exist in Washington.

Fully restored models fetch $50,000 to $80,000.

"It is fun when people in these million-dollar boats are taking pictures of us," Capron said. "But I don't think they see us as part of the boating community."

No matter. Seattle's a tolerant place. And there's always room on opening day for another boat. Even when it's a car.