4 - Wednesday, March 12, 1986 - North Shore News Bob Hunter BOATS — what is it about them? bought one. Again. My wife cried to rationalize the whole business by figuring out ways and means so that the boat could be considered an invest- ment. I Jaughed. Yes I did. Right at her. Sweet honey bean, said 1, tears of mirth pouring down my cheeks, you're not going to try and pretend this is a sensible undertaking! Il remember my first boat, an old Steveston gillnetter with a Ford V-8 engine. If I had thought about it, 1 wouldn't have bought the thing in the first place because of its bad karma. That is, it must have been built | by or for a Japanese-Canadian fisherman, and therefore would have been one of the hundreds | that were rounded up during the internment days at the start of the Second World War. These boats were sold off at fire sale prices to other | fishermen. As everyone knows, the issue of reimbursement for | Japanese-Canadians whose prop- erty was seized and sold by fed- f eral authorities is a lingering question. For the record, if the search ever truly gets underway for the culprits, 1 will have to surrender myself. Yes, I bought ‘‘hot’’ goods. It happened to be decades { after and the hot item happened to have been stolen by the Cana- dian government, and _ the “fence’? happened to be the Ca- nadian government as well. But is that an excuse? In any event, the boat broke down on me something like 15 times in one summer. Anyone who puts to sea with a Ford V-8 engine is nuts, you see. It is as 1 simple as that. On the positive side, apart from the many adventures that make fine after-supper conversa- tion pieces years later, when you are back on dry land, 1 got a script idea out of it that led toa Beachcomber show titled A Boat for Mr. Kokubo, in which David Suzuki's father, Buck Suzuki, got to play the role of an old Japa- nese-Canadian who tracks down @ strictly personal © ! just went and | should of course know better. his beloved boat in Gibson's Landing. 1 sti get residuals on that show, Just the other dav, the CBC sold it to Ireland. It was a hit its Saudi Arabia and The Bahamas. So, in retrospect, the adven- tures can be seen as worth it—for me, at least. Although it was nice to see Mr. Suzuki getting some work out of it too. The boat itself was eventually dry-docked, then mounted on planks ashore. A wind blew it over. (A kamikaze wind?) The last time I saw it some hippies had tacked cedar shakes all over the wheelhouse and 1 knew it was never going to go back down to the sea. My second boat had a great engine, a Chrysler Crown. But the hull leaked and it sank. How's that for making a long story short? My third boat was an old pro- vincial police boat with yellow cedar deep-V hull and gumwood bumpers and an Izusi diesel, a princess of West Coast boats, so lovely yet so macho. I fell in love with the vessel and lived on it for nearly three years. Adventures? Someday I’! write a mini-series. Alas, one day while my wife and I were off in another coun- try, somebody retied the lines at Jow tide and although our precious boat must have struggl- ed heroically, she couldn't escape her doom when the tide came in. The electronic stuff was all ruin- ed and the wood never recovered. The insurance, it turned out, had expired a couple of days before the event. So now we have gone and done it again. A lovely old wooden cabin cruiser with a Chrysler Crown engine and a range of maybe 400 miles. I can hear my banker salivating. And the marine insurance guy. And the marine supply shop. And the mechanic. And the shipwright. And the accountant down at the boat club Come on, sweet bean, let’s forget our troubles and go for a Setting it straight In a report fast Wednesday of West Vancouver council's debate on amulti-famis housing project above the Upper Levels, it was erroneously stated Chat the application was defer- red pending updating af the com- munity plan. In tact, council's deei- sian was to refer the application to the Advisory Planning Commission for review, coniment, Oh tee Neth Shere tice bash TE FURNITURE & APPLIANCES PARTS & SERWICE FOR MAJOR APPLIANCES Parts Dept open 830105 30 Mon tofu Sat 9teS Major appliance in HOME service 1s as Near ay your phone 1590 Marine Dr., North Vancouver 987-2251 Vacuum Cleaner parts uf pring your Cleaner in tor servicing A DYNAMIC ‘NEW FITNESS PROGRAM F FORA SLEEK STRONG BODY!:: Ferny Fitness CALL NOW! NV. VANCOUVER, INT. PLAZA HOTEL 986-5201 VANCCUVER 2405 W. 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