My friend Bob built a Piragua pirogue, and added a trolling motor to the forward compartment that sticks out the bottom, and vanishes utterly when the boat is in the water. It is controlled with the handle from a video game joystick, a "coolie-hat" button performing all functions. Bob delights in tooling around and causing people to wonder how on earth... I have seen him in action, lazing completely exposed in the open boat, to all appearances sitting still as a statue not doing anything at all. Yet he goes just where he likes, and at a respectable clip. It is the funniest thing to see, as if the boat were driven by his will power alone, and I imagine it has caused more than one person to stop drinking.

Bob also used to laugh and say "paddling is for losers". Until, that is, he saw my Mill Creeks. He knows a good thing when he sees it, and will likely be making kayaks any day now.