By Mike Jastrzebski
Mary and I were sitting in the cockpit Sunday morning, drinking coffee and enjoying the great south Florida sunshine when a car drove by. This is not a set-up for a joke, the car was actually cruising on down the river as if the driver had nothing better to do.
It appeared to be a classic 1960′s era amphicar. It’s been a long time since I saw one of these cars, in fact the last time I actually saw one on the water was around 1966. It was cruising along the Clinton River in Mt. Clemens, Michigan and I didn’t even have a driver’s license yet. I remember thinking that it would be a great car to own.
This got me wondering, could this be the perfect dinghy? One of the biggest problems with cruising is getting around on land. Sure, the weight might drop our cruising speed from 5 knots to 1 or 2 knots, but nobody cruises on a sailboat for speed.
And I might be a little worried that the thing would sink if a storm pops up, but isn’t life a series of chances we take?
I was sitting out there at the anchorage getting all excited about my brilliant discovery and I even went so far as to go on the net to see how much my new dinghy was going to cost me.
Damn. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that these little classic darlings are going for $75,000 dollars. My mood took a nose dive as my brilliant idea turned sour and I realized that there would be no new dinghy in my life after all.
Has anyone else out there had a brilliant idea that just didn’t pan out, or is it just me?
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Those Amphicars were pretty slick in their day but I always was concerned that they would be prone to swamping. However, if you want to drop a bundle, take a look at this one – you might want to tow your sailboat with it.
Richard, I have the same feeling about swamping. I was just surprised to see one cruising down the Middle River here in Ft. Lauderdale. Hope all is well with you.