By Charles Plueddeman114 | BOATINGMAG.COM | FEBRUARY 2018OFF MY DOCKT
he insurance check didn’t arrive until after Christmas, but my
good friend Chuck Larson figured that was perfect timing. None
of his settlement would be siphoned off to give some distant neph-
ew an extra-special holiday. Now Chuck had cash in hand before
boat-show season.
“What do you think about a center console boat?” Chuck asked me one
January evening as we huddled in the warm embrace of the Lake View Inn,
our refuge from a subzero blast swooping down from Canada to test the
cold-cranking amps of every truck battery in the Northwoods.
“Hard to beat the versatility, and I love
standing at the helm,” I replied. “But a center
console does not exactly fit our décor. People
might think you just moved up from Florida.”
Chuck stared into his beer and melancholy
tinged his voice.
“We caught a lot of fish from the old Yar-
Craft ...”
Oh geez, here we go. Get ready for an hour
of mourning the lost boat and all the memo-
ries it carried. The demise of the Yar-Craft is
a great story. And I am not making this up.
In our neck of the woods it is not unusual at all to store a boat for the
offseason in an old dairy barn. For $120 Chuck and 10 other boat or camper
owners secured space for six months on the upper floor of the aging but
sturdy barn at Bob Nowak’s place. It’s been 30 years since a teat was pulled
at the Nowak farm, but the red barn still had a solid, weatherproof roof.Chuck dropped off
the shrink-wrapped
Yar-Craft in October.
The annual burn-
ing of the brush pile
is a festivity Bob
Nowak saves for
early November.
Sticks and branch-
es, lumber scraps
and perhaps a pallet
or two accumulate
on the pile all year,
and as the days grow
short, the bonfire seems
like an offering of thanks for a
good harvest. Except that Bob works
at the bank, but whatever. Burning
stuff is always fun.
This year, his son Bob Jr. brought
some old gas. They poured that on
the pile and, with great ceremony,
tossed on a match. With a whoosh
an orange blaze filled the twilight
sky, and it was just a moment later
that Bob noticed the flaming rac-
coon sprinting toward the barn.
The place was still smolder-
ing when Chuck arrived the next
morning, supposing that he might
somehow find his trusty red-
and-white Dardevle spoon in the
remains of the barn, but that hope
was dashed right through the wind-
shield. Chuck just turned around
and drove home. In a week, a big
yellow backhoe was hired to bury
the mess, and that was the end
of the Yar-Craft. Chuck got little
closure, but perhaps renewal will
come to him at the Green Bay boat
show. I’m watching the antique
mall for a vintage Dardevle.An orange blaze filled
the twilight sky, and itwas just a moment later
that Bob noticed the
flaming raccoon sprint-
ing toward the barn.BONFIRE OF
THE CALAMITIES
Saying goodbye to an old friend.BOATING (ISSN 0006-5374) (USPS 504-810), February 2018, Volume 91, No. 2. ©2018. Boating is published monthly, except July/August and November/December, by Bonnier Corp., 460 N. Orlando
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receive a corrected address within one year.ILLUSTRATION: TIM BOWER; PHOTO: MABEL PLUEDDEMAN