OWNERS’ CLUB
can enjoy his boats and spend more time
travelling with his growing family. But he is still
very much involved in the family business. “I try
to keep the kids thinking, doing things that are
adventurous and different,” he says. “That’s what
keeps anybody going.”
A couple of current projects include a chain of
Italian restaurants called Enzo’s opening in
California – seafood doesn’t really work in the
desert, he points out – and a marina for transient
yachts near Dent Island in British Columbia, one
of his favourite cruising grounds. The marina has
a clever energy-management system with
generators and a solar inverter, which adjusts to
power demand. “By doing that, we can save
thousands of gallons of fuel.”
Growing up on the water, Griffith always
played around in boats. One of the first vessels he
remembers owning was a Willits sailing canoe,
handmade in Tacoma, Washington, which he
wishes he had kept as they are now regarded as
valuable antiques.
When they married, Hal and his wife, Joan,
took a nine-metre sailboat to the San Juan
Islands, having never sailed or spent the night on
the boat before. They continued sailing for a few
years, but grew tired of being the last ones to
arrive when they met up with friends who had
powerboats. Eventually they switched to motor
yachts (starting with a Pacific Northwest-made
Tollycraft 44) and never looked back. Little by
little, the boats got bigger. Many years on, there
was a 23.7-metre Hargrave, named Crab Pot after
one of their restaurants, and then they built a
30.7-metre Hargrave named Sea Venture.
The couple split up the tasks, with Hal doing
the driving and mechanics and Joan cleaning and
cooking. “I grew up in an area and a time when
you needed to know how to do things,” he says. “I
maintain that, unless you have a mechanical
aptitude, you shouldn’t own a boat.”
When it became a bit harder for them to
handle the lines and run up and down the decks,
they started to warm to the idea of a bigger boat“I try to keep the kids thinking,
and doing things that are
adventurous and different. That’s
what keeps anybody going”Hal and Joan both love
exploring the Pacific
Northwest (top). Fishing
remains close to Hal’s
heart (above), while he
once had 50 guests on
board Sea Venture to
watch a football match91boatinternational.com
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