THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502160119
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Tight Lines
SOURCE: Ford Reid
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
It's not that I try to go to the boat show on the nastiest day possible. It just seems to happen that way.
But the result is a happy one. There is something especially gratifying about being surrounded by all of those dreams of summer when outside it is below freezing and spitting something nasty.
With any luck, I'll never as long as I live own another boat that is worth more than about $950.
It's not that I don't love boats. I do. It is owning them that gets to be a problem.
The ideal thing, I have learned in my maturity, is to have close friends and relatives who own boats.
When you can arrange that, be generous with them. Every time they take you out, offer to, no insist on, buying all of the gasoline, the drinks, the sandwiches, the bait and anything else that you, or they, might need or want.
You might throw in a little something extra now and then, such as a book on navigation or a new float cushion.
In the long run, you will still be dollars ahead. Many, many dollars ahead.
Still, once a year at the boat show, I am a buyer in my head, picking and choosing between this boat and that one. I resist, or try to, the burning desire to own almost every one of them.
No one boat could possibly be enough, of course.
In the spring, you need a skiff to fish the shoals of the sounds where big bluefish and giant red drum lay in the sun waiting for a fly or a lure to pass by them. This boat should be small and maneuverable, a two-person fishing machine.
Then, of course, you need a larger, more comfortable boat for trolling along the ocean shore. Nothing huge, mind you, just something that's big enough for two or three people to fish off the stern.
The really big boat is for those trips to the Gulf Stream a little later in the year. Of course, it would be nice to have a professional skipper to run that one and a mate to rig the ballyhoo, but, hey, we can't have everything, can we?
But why stop there?
A yacht built on a dead-rise work boat hull would be perfect for that extended coastal cruise you've always wanted to take. Nothing fancy, just a little cabin and considerable cockpit space, perfect for those quiet dinners at anchor on warm summer evenings.
A rowing scull is just the thing you need to get some exercise and a canoe, or maybe a kayak, would be terrific for exploring the sounds, bays and tidal creeks that surround us.
But those are only my dreams. You probably have your own ideas about what you need to make life perfect.
The Mid-Atlantic Boat Show continues through this afternoon at the Pavilion in Virginia Beach.
There are plenty of dreams there to go around. by CNB