How many years?

[Angela]

Believe it or not, but I had never even stepped foot upon a boat period until 1992. A couple of months thereafter, I owned my own 17' runabout. That same year, I bought lake property, eventually sold my other house and then spent the following year building my house at the lake. I still had small boats and jet skis until February of 2003 when I bought my first "big boat" and met forum member, EGaito. I bought his 1985 Cruisers, Inc. express cruiser which I eventually lived on. Seeing as I stopped going home and my house at the lake sat vacant for a couple of years, I sold that too and everything in it. I sold the Cruisers in October of 2005 having been deep in pursuit of a Hatteras for some time by then.

February of 2006 brought me a beautiful Hatteras! All in all, I haven't been a boater, at least not a "real" boater, for all that long by the marks of the rest of you, but I think I've taken the fast track in trying to catch up. If only I could turn back time....I would have done this a very long time ago!

[spartonboat1]

Do you have the disposition or Doc number on the DeFoe. I keep a halfassed database on their boats, and would like to look it up. Been on several of their commercial / military boats and love them. ws

Sorry, I don't have the mfg details. Boat I crewed on was the Natoya, one of 4 or 5 in the DeFoe Cruisemaster line. A sister-ship was the Chanticleer owned by Ralph Envinrude and his wife singer Francis Langford; she just passed last year, he many years earlier. She was up in the North Channel for many years.

The original Chanticleer is up on the hard out East somewhere (saw pic on a web site, not looking good) if not cut up, while the Natoya is now a reef near FL, so I'm told. James Bond movie Thunderball has a 5 second shot of the Natoya "off-shore" all painted in white. Original owner was James "Jim/Unkie" DuCharme of Grosse Pointe, MI, esp. Windmill Point, and she was moored at the "Little Club", i.e. the Grosse Pointe club in the 60's. Run north to Hessel, MI in the summers to carry various parties to Lk MI, Huron, and Superior. Two Gray Marine powered 16' launches.

The Defoe web site, mentions the Cruisemasters and a shot of one of the other sisters, the Savitar. All I know at this time.

Check out the Defoe web...many cool Navy ships build over the years!

[captadamr]

Almost 40yrs for my dad, although he was busy racing sailboats all over the US, and in the olympics during that time. Got our first boat motor boat, a 32'Trojan when I was 8 months old. My dad bought our first hat when i was 10yrs old, we already had a chris craft and a trojan. Well 12 years later, we decided to get another hatt, to sit beside the 45', and im loving it so much more than the Tiara. Hatteras was definatly the way to go! Now if I could get my hands on one of those 60' GT Tournament Editions then I would be good to go!

[yachtsmanbill]

Sorry, I don't have the mfg details. Boat I crewed on was the Natoya, one of 4 or 5 in the DeFoe Cruisemaster line. A sister-ship was the Chanticleer owned by Ralph Envinrude and his wife singer Francis Langford; she just passed last year, he many years earlier. She was up in the North Channel for many years.

The original Chanticleer is up on the hard out East somewhere (saw pic on a web site, not looking good) if not cut up, while the Natoya is now a reef near FL, so I'm told. James Bond movie Thunderball has a 5 second shot of the Natoya "off-shore" all painted in white. Original owner was James "Jim/Unkie" DuCharme of Grosse Pointe, MI, esp. Windmill Point, and she was moored at the "Little Club", i.e. the Grosse Pointe club in the 60's. Run north to Hessel, MI in the summers to carry various parties to Lk MI, Huron, and Superior. Two Gray Marine powered 16' launches.

The Defoe web site, mentions the Cruisemasters and a shot of one of the other sisters, the Savitar. All I know at this time.

Check out the Defoe web...many cool Navy ships build over the years!

Before the HATT TRICK I was trying to buy the ex Milwaukee fireboat DELUGE with 4 NORDBERG direct reversables, and prior to that I bid on the BUCANEER ex Chicago tour boat that was a USCG rum runner hunter with several kills off Cuba in the 30S. ZENITH tug SENECA was built there as well. When I had my Hatt for sale in Mobile there was a guy from Gulfport that wanted her. He also has a 140' DeFoe thats now a floating restaurant, belonged to Charles Fisher of the GM body division who entertained JFK and Marilyn on the boat. That may have been the SAVITAR! Now in Biloxi. Post WWII new orleans levy authority had it for entertaining VIPsThey really knew how to build them. Thanks ws

[Maynard Rupp]

Our 36C Hat, Unity, is my first powerboat, yup, true. I have been buying and maintaining our Yacht Club's work boats for 20 years. I have owned and raced lots of sailboats for about 40 years. I enjoy racing sailboats, but wouldn't want to cruise them.

[labrador]

Maynard I'm like you. My 40 aft cabin Labrador is the first power, as a matter of fact my first boat of any type, if you don't count my 8' pran I got for Christmas when I was 10. I have however been racing sailboats for 30yrs eventually becoming a watch captain on long distance ocean races. That was on someone else's dime however as the owner paid for all upkeep and crew expenses which totaled as much as 150,000 per yr. during the Bermuda race years when we had to buy some new sails. We're having a great time owning and trying to learn maintaince as we go along. Been 3 1/2 years now and am enjoying it more each year. Now if I can just get my wife to let me go for a 53 I'd be in heaven!

[Jaxfishgyd]

Over the years we have owned 11 boats. Now until "No Dial Tone" all were fishing boats in the 16'- 23' range. But I was on boats of all sizes, either as a deck hand or boat captain since 1970.
My "Ideal boat" growing up was a Grand Banks. Told my child bride that my game plan was to be a full time liveaboard.
Over the years I realized that the G.B. wasn't exactly what I wanted but wasn't sure just what did fit the bill.
Then I did a delivery of a 53' Hatt from W.P.B. over to Sarasota and I was sold.
When the wife said in 1999 "Lets sell the house and buy a boat".......
Well you know I jumped at the idea. We looked at boats all over Fla and Tenn (wife was working in Nashville at the time).
The 43' DC we ended up with was a deal I could not pass up. Got it for $110,000 with the owner giving me a check for $39,500 BACK at closing due to blown motors.
Got both 6-71N's completely rebuilt for $24,000 and used the rest for new A/Cs and other repairs.

[JLR]

I have been boating since I was two. That's 49 years. I bought my first boat (as opposed to family boats) in 1990, exactly 24 hours after my son was born. I have gone from a 33 Carver to a 46 Silverton to a 56 Hatteras MY. Then I got the fishing bug--also known as moving up in dink sizes for the aforementioned boats. While I owned the Carver, I stored an inflatable on deck. I guess it was about 10 feet. Then, on the Silverton, I stored a 14 foot Carolina Skiff on the hardtop. Since I have no room on the 56 for a dink, I went to trailer size and moved up from a 15 Key West to a 19 Sea Pro to a 28 Baja to a 29 Luhrs and then it hit me--why all the fooling around with off brands on my fishing boat. This year, I added a 43 Hatteras SX (open) to the 56 MY. All in all, I knew the 56 was right when I bought it and have kept it since 1998. I am hoping the same about the 43 so my shopping days are over--two Hatteras boats now with a few others boats in between.

[Mike53C]

Since I have memory there was a boat in my home. I was born in Spain and we lived by the shore in a small town near Barcelona. My father built a small wooden row boat, maybe 10’ long, square bow and stern and flat bottom. Fig box called it the locals. But when winter storms came my dad went out to fish, and that was for sport since he was an artist painter. I still remember watching him come back, the tiny speck the boat made in those dark green waves, overcast sky and very windy, and he would wait for the proper wave train and then row like mad to end at the beach and then jump out barely wetting his feet and dragging the small dinghy to higher ground. When the pros tried to beach their heavy traditional double ended keel boats they invariabily dug the keel , the next wave pushed them sideways and then the next overturned them in a mess of nets, glass round floats and yells and curses….Boy was I proud of my father and our Fig Box. But around 1950, my father was afraid of another war or comunism and he decided to come to America and we ended in Venezuela. About one year after settling he bought a 1947 Pontiac and built another square boat that fit nicely on top of it. So we had a boat again. On this one I put a square sail made with bed sheet, and later a 1 ½ Hp outboard. Wow!!!. So I finished high school, money was rather short so I started working at 17, and soon bought a Sunfish (sailboat). Then one day I met this guy that was a professional wood boat builder. He had come to Venezuela too but his art was not appreciated so he made Jeep canvas tops for living. But the urge was there and in his spare time he had built this mahogany 12 feet runabout all hand varnished and polished, naugahide seats, steering wheel and all. He must have seen the sparks in my eyes and believe it or not, he gave it to me. He had no sons and I suppose that the fact that I went every day after work to touch that boat must have got into his heart. Well that boat went thru a 30 Evinrude, then I tricked that motor but I wanted more speed so I got a 60 Gale…who remembers that motor?…Man, that was power…with a two blade prop I did 55 knots, the only thing riding on the water was te anticavitation plate of the motor. But this boat was a Trip Chine boat, which at that time I had no idea of what that was so one day I was flying with it and turned perhaps too much and WHAM!!!
Now you are riding smooth as silk, now you are turning and turning and it seems it will never stop. I ripped the steeering wheel with my knees but that was about all. Lucky me.
I then got my hands into a 13’ Bosto Whaler with a 65 Merc. Beautiful boat. Got married too. And then in 1978 I bought a 22’ Outrage Boston Whaler with a 200 Merc. We enjoyed that boat so much that we all cried when we sold it one year ago. Which brings us to my present boat, a 1970 53C Hatteras built strong as a battleship, in the era when nobody was real sure of the strenght and durability of fiberglas.
You know, if I have to be honest, a boat of that size was out of question…and possibilities. But since my Sunfish days, when I saw the big Sportfishermans, with high mighty bows and low sterns, going by me slowly, big diesels rumbling I began to have that impossible dream that one day I would have one. So years went by and then I began to remember that my grandfather, in Barcelona, who was an accomplished and renown photographer always said..You know when I decide to retire, I will buy a small house by the beach and will spend my years fishing, and shooting photographs when I care to.
My father became also widely recognized by his paintings and he always said…You know, when I decide to retire I will buy a small house by the beach and spend my time fishing and painting when I care to.
You know what?
My grandfather died in his apartment in Barcelona from lung cancer. Never made that dream, even thou he had the means.
My father died of a heart failure in his house in Barquisimeto. Never made his dream either.
The time was never right you know? There was always the….Ok, next year we will see….But next year something popped and …next year we will see…
So, all of a sudden I turn 64, been in boating forever, small boating ok, but you know, let's say I have been around,... still working and for YEARS dreaming of that boat and then I see that chinese proverb…”Enjoy your days…it is later than you think” and like a flash comes the…next year we will see,…
I decided then and there that I would have my dream while we all were in good health. I took the savings of a lifetime, and right or wrong, political moment or not bought that boat.
Yesterday it was the boat second birthday with us and we met to celebrate.
You can see the boat at anchor, early Sunday morning, windy as hell, the Delta anchor holdig securly in a sandy/crushed coral bottom. Scope was about 12 to 1.
And the day before, at the marina having breakfast on a spanish mackerel and two groupers caught 20 minutes before. My grand daughter having her first fish taste.
And then her smile and tongue licking...it is for this moments that we boat...don't you agree?
And what about my grand father and my father?
I bet if we look closely, in calm nights, they are sitting on that huge bow deck, legs dangling and fishing happily on their son's dream come true.

[Pascal]

about 17 years.... i got my first boat in 85, a 25' bayliner, bought in miami and shipped over down to st barth where i lived. moved to miami in 93, with the boat then sold it in 98 for a maxum 37.

in june 03 i decided to get a larger boat to live aboard (separating, pending divorce). didn't take me much research to figure out the 53MY was THE boat, found one within a couple of months.