ING HIGH
It was just an old plywood boat.
A ’75 Johnson with electric choke.
A young boy, two hands on the wheel.
I can’t forget the way it made me feel.
Those are my favorite words in Alan Jackson’s ballad
“Drive.” It poignantly records the moment in boating that
imprints the experience permanently in boaters’ must-
do-it brain sector. I remember my fi rst boating experience
exactly that way.
My fi rst boat ride, in a 15-foot Starcraft, infected me
with the boating bug at age 10. But 30 years ago, the in-
fection went airborne the fi rst time I rode on the fl ying
bridge of an Islamorada sport-fi sher. From the bridge, I
could spot fi sh invisible to the crew in the cockpit. A sea
turtle passed below, rounding a coral head in 30 feet of
water. Everywhere I looked, the navigable water was to-
paz, and the passages between coral and sandbars were as
evident as if a chart was laid across the sea.
No, I never bought a boat with a fl ying bridge, but I
never lost the appetite to have one, and I’ve been fortu-
nate enough to have a lot of experience aboard them over
the years.
Their advantages are compelling, but they don’t come
without some liabilities either. Here, then, are all the rea-
sons to love a fl ybridge boat.ALL THE REASONS TO LOVE A FLYBRIDGE
BY RANDY VANCEBOATINGMAG.COM | JULY/AUGUST 2018 | 75