
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990                   TAG: 9006230356
SECTION: SMITH MOUNTAIN TIMES                    PAGE: SMT-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MARINE CARPENTER GETS OLD BOATS SHIPSHAPE

Smith Mountain Lake is home to more than yuppies who own boats as status symbols. Bill Linley, a marine carpenter at Saunders Marina in Huddleston, rescues and restores boats abandoned years ago in the nautical graveyards of the older marinas.

Linley fell in love with boats when he was 23 and living in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was following in the footsteps of his father, who was a marine carpenter.

"Our whole family works with boats," Linley said, showing pictures of his relatives along with pictures of his boats. "It's more than a hobby; it's more like a way of life."

Linley ended up in this area a few years ago when he decided he was tired of southern Florida. He headed north with his wife, Jackie, and ended up in Virginia. He chose Penhook because he wanted to live near the water but not too far from a larger city.

He asked a real estate agent to show him the "biggest, cheapest, farthest-out" farm they were selling - which is now his home. "It was a real gamble, but we went ahead and did it," Linley said.

"Boats and farms kind of go together," he added. "It was providence that brought me here. You can use `providence'; that's a good sailing term."

Linley commutes by car and boat from his farm in Pittsylvania County with his dog, Target. "She's an Oklahoma Sooner," said Linley. "She'd sooner be sailing than anything else."

One of Linley's current projects is restoring a 1959 MFG, a 15-foot fiberglass motorboat that looks like it's made of wood. "I just fell in love with it."

Although the boat had been left to rot, it was still relatively intact. The boat cost Linley about $100, and he said he's put about $300 worth of equipment into it.

The biggest expense was a 1957 engine from another boat that Linley was given by the marina owner. The engine shaft had to be lengthened to fit the boat, but when Linley saw it, "it's like a ray of light shone on it.

"I wouldn't have gotten so excited over it if it was work. . . . It's not really work when you enjoy it."

Linley estimates he's spent about 60 hours on the boat, including beer-drinking time. "You're supposed to lean on the boat a lot and drink beer and think about it," he said.

Linley prefers to work on boats he finds unique, "not the run-of-the-mill, everyday runabout." He also prefers old boats in wood or fiberglass, although fiberglass is much easier to find. He looks for boats with intact glass windshields because they're worth more. But Linley has never had to search for a boat. "All the boats I got just fell into my life."

Almost nothing is too far gone for Linley to salvage. One boat he owns was found with a locust tree growing in it. That boat, an OMC Custom 17, Linley describes as looking like a '63 Chevy Impala. Almost any boat can be salvaged, Linley said, "once you get all the garbage out of it."

Linley has expanded his love for boats into a philosophy. "People don't like to work on anything anymore," he said. "They'd rather buy something new than work on something old. That's the problem with the world today."

by CNB