Hi all, thanks Goerg, this is a great forum. My wife and I are owned by the Wild Duck. It is a 54 ft. full displacement trawler designed by Mr. Krogen and built by Charley Morgan in St. Petersburg Fl in 1972. As we speak it is undergoing a major refit and reconfigurement. Our youngest son suffered a traumatic brain injury several years ago and is totally dependent on his mother and myself for his wellbeing, as such we needed a boat that could accomadate his requirements first and ours second. A custom boat was very expensive and I'm to much of a hands on person to let someone else do things for me, so we decided to look for a suitable hull that we could build to suit. This old tub is it. To date my longest passage has been from Ft. Myers to Galveston, mostly offshore, in this old boat, after a 4 day thrash to get it back in the water. It had been on the hard at Ft. Myers Yacht for a few years. My two oldest sons and me got the engines (4-53 detroits) to run, put on a coat of bottom paint, rigged up some electronics, shored up the rotten salon window structures and dumped the old girl in the ocean. The guys at the yard said we were nuts when I told them our destination. The trip was one of the greatest adventures I have ever had, made better by haveing my sons along. We had a few tense moments, like haveing to head up into a storm we couldn't outrun or miss. 65 mph. wind and waves that aproached the pilot house on accasion, sometimes totally inundateing the bow. Full power and just keep it pointed into them was all we could do. The old boat did a lot better than me. We had a lot of beautiful days on the gulf, flat water and the yell of FISH ON. Those times are echted in my mind. Hopefully, the refit will be done early next summer. We plan to do some gulf cruiseing, maybe mexico and the Bahamas. the next spring, or the one after that, we plan to cross the Atlantic. We are retired, I'm 42- my wife is 40, so a schedule is not important. We really want to cruise the Pacific islands, that's our goal. I have always done what I set out to do and that's what we want to do. The guy on his death bed never says I wish I had worked more !!!!!!!