My First Sled: 1969 Boa-Ski

In the first of our series on “My First Sled”, we received a submission from Andre who had a 1969 Boa-Ski. When we put together our Slideshow of the Lost Snowmobile Brands of the 1970s, we were remiss in omitting Boa-Ski. Let’s take this opportunity to look explore this old snowmobile brand.

Boa-Ski was started in1967 by a group lead by Joseph-Aime Morin in the small town of La Guadeloupe, Quebec. Mr. Morin operated a machine shop that manufactured components for Sno-Jet which was located in nearby Thetford Mines. Other companies in La Guadeloupe were making parts for Sno-Jet and Mr-Morin brought this group together to start their own snowmobile company and thus Boa-Ski was born. As much of the tooling was used for previous Sno-Jet parts, the first Boa-Ski models were all but identical to Sno-Jets, save for the colors and decals.

Boa-Ski closed their doors in late 1977. It must have been a very viable operation in the mid-70s as they survived the snowmobile industry purge of 1973-1974 when the OPEC oil crisis and poor snow conditions were the death of dozens upon dozens of sled brands.

In 1969, Boa-Ski offered 7 models. All models used Hirth 2-stroke engines which were equipped with Tillotson carburetors. For that year, Boa-Ski recommended a gasoline/oil mix ratio of 20:1 in all of their snowmobiles. Here are horsepower numbers for 1969 Boa-Ski models:

• Standard 15– Engine: Hirth 300cc, Horsepower: 15
• Standard 19– Engine: Hirth 300cc, Horsepower: 19
• Deluxe 15– Engine: Hirth 300cc, Horsepower: 15
• Deluxe 19– Engine: Hirth 300cc, Horsepower: 19
• Standard 23– Engine: Hirth 372cc, Horsepower: 23
• Standard 28– Engine: Hirth 493cc, Horsepower: 28
• Standard 36– Engine: Hirth 634cc, Horsepower: 35

We would love to hear about your first snowmobile. Tell us the year, make and model and feel free to offer stories or special memories about the experience. Contact us at info “at” oildepot.ca and tell us about your first sled.