On Apr 30, 3:41?am, Harry Krause wrote:

Perhaps in the future the commercial boating magazine for which you
write will change its name to Northwest Cartopper, and you can regale us
with tours of the plastic canoe factory.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Such a tale wouldn't begin to compare with the story of a guy who
lived in Florida, posted to rec.boats, and claimed to own a very fancy
Hatteras.
Several posters in that era expressed serious doubt regarding the
veracity of the claim, and when challenged to "come down anytime you
like and see for yourself!", one did.

As I recall, when he tracked down the address of the only person with
the appropriate name living in the little town where the poster with
the supposed Hatteras claimed to reside, he encountered an extremely
humble dwelling in a portion of town where folks of less-than-moderate
means were known to live.
My memory doesn't serve me well enough to recall whether it was
specifically refered to as a "single wide". As I recall, he thought
somebody was home and knocked on the door but nobody answered.

The fellow who took the road trip to Florida reported his findings to
the NG. The "Hatteras owner" immediately claimed that the road tripper
had gone to the wrong address, and added that in case anybody else had
the same idea of
traveling to Florida to see this fantastic Hatteras they should know
it was already too late to do so. The "Hatteras owner" was suddenly an
ex-Hatteras owner, having accepted an offer far in excess of the
killer-diller deal he had so shrewdly struck when he purchased it
himself.

Now of course that was years and years ago. The Hatteras owner still
lives along the Atlantic seaboard, only a bit farther north. It's no
wonder the poor schlump left town, especially after that unfortunate
incident where somebody with the exact same name (but not provably the
same person) was arrested for exposing his genitals to a school bus
filled with little kids. I would have left town too. They don't take
too kindly to sexual perverts down in Florida, and if one were to have
the unfortunate distinction of sharing the exact same name as somebody
suspected of flashing school kids he could wind up just as beat up or
lynched as the actual culprit.

You are entirely right, Harry. Any story about building plastic canoes
would pale in comparison to tales of disappearing Hatteras, invisible
lobster boats,
and suck by suck descriptions about pumping septic tanks.

Good thing you never claimed to own a Hatteras; you'd look like the
world's biggest hypocrite with your sudden disdain for any boats
larger than a car-topper.