106 | BOATINGMAG.COM | APRIL 2018L
oyal readers have been flooding the office with cards and letters,
anxious to find out whether my good friend Chuck Larson has
selected a new boat to replace his beloved Yar-Craft, which you
may recall was consumed last November in a conflagration started
by a singed raccoon. The short answer is yes, Chuck has a boat. But of
course, there’s a story.
Chuck quickly discovered that the insurance check he received for the loss
of the Yar-Craft would make a very small dent in the price of a brand-new
boat. So he shifted tactics.
“Why buy new when used
will do?” was Chuck’s mantra
as he sat tapping on a laptop
perched on the blue Formica of
the Lake View Inn bar. He was
scouring listings from Escanaba
to Minneapolis, sorting through
the mistreated — “trailer for
sale, includes boat” — and the
misfortunate — “conviction
forces quick sale of boat” — and the misplaced — “for pickup in northern
Manitoba.”
At that precise moment, Bob “Toes” Lund wheeled into the bar with a cart
of fresh snacks from his Frito-Lay “chip wagon.”
“There’s a Yar-Craft for sale on the east side of the lake,” said Toes. “Saw it
yesterday on my route. Looks just like your old boat.”This, of course, caused Chuck’s
eyebrows to elevate.
“Was there a phone number on
the sign?” Chuck inquired.
“Well, there wasn’t actually a For
Sale sign on the boat.”
“Then how do you know it’s for
sale?”
“You know ... it just looks like it’s
for sale,” replied Toes. “It’s parked
closer to the road than to the house.”
Everyone in the bar nodded know-
ingly, recognizing this cultural signal.
And so, Chuck and I mounted
an expedition to Calumetville. We
pulled over on the gravel shoulder at
an old farmhouse on Town Hall Road.
In the front yard under a large oak
was the boat on its trailer. Definitely
closer to the road than to the house.
Chuck could not believe his eyes.
“It’s like seeing a ghost ...” he whis-
pered as he threw open the door to
his truck.
The boat was a clone of Chuck’s
incinerated Yar-Craft, a 1996 1785
Mille Lacs side-console model, white
with a red stripe and that funny old
Yar-Craft logo, with a Mercury 115
two-stroke on the transom.
“It’s like your wife runs off, and
six months later you meet her twin
sister in a bar,” said Chuck.
Needless to say, a deal was struck.
Chuck later figured out that this
boat and his burned boat have con-
secutive serial numbers and were
both sold by the same dealer. They
were truly siblings.
And here’s the real miracle. In the
tackle drawer, under a rusty pliers
and nylon rope stringer, Chuck found
an old red-and-white Dardevle spoon,
the perfect replacement for the one
he lost in the fire. I have no idea how it
got there. Can I get a hallelujah?And here’s the real miracle.
Chuck found an old red-and-
white Dardevle spoon, the perfectreplacement for the one he lost in
the fire. I have no idea how it got
there. Can I get a hallelujah?THE MIRACLE
OF CALUMETVILLE
A man is reunited with his lost boat, sort of, just in
time for opening day.BOATING (ISSN 0006-5374) (USPS 504-810), April 2018, Volume 91, No. 4. ©2018. Boating is published nine times a year (February, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, October and
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is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year.ILLUSTRATION: TIM BOWER; PHOTO: MABEL PLUEDDEMAN