Family – TheWriteBoat Blog

Tuesday, December 22, 2020. In two more days it will be Christmas Eve, a time that family and friends are normally celebrating the birth of Christ, together. Sadly, this year COVID-19 has changed that for many families – and friends. It reminded me of an older post from my CruisingTheICW blog. This seems an appropriate time to again share from TheWriteBoat, “Family. What’s It’s All About.”

Our son Bo was born in August 1968. A month before his birth, I had opened a new hotel in Greenville, SC, and worked nearly 24/7 during the last Beach Boys and Bo at 6 weeks month of my “bride’s” pregnancy. Though I rushed home the night that Bo was born, it wasn’t until six weeks after his birth that the family could join me in Greenville. Soon thereafter, the Beach Boys stayed in the hotel while performing in concert at the Greenville Auditorium. The morning they were leaving, I asked if it would be possible to get a picture of our newborn son with them. They were most gracious, and the picture was taken.

Before handing Bo back to me, the young man holding him asked, “Is this your first?” I replied that yes, Bo was our first child. As he continued to hold our son in one arm, he pointed at him, looked up at me, and said, “You don’t understand it now, but right here’s what it’s all about.” He was right, family is what it’s all about.

This post is about a boat, the man who designed and built it, and family – a father that wanted his young daughter to grow up with the special memories of time spent with family onboard a boat – a specific boat – a Cargile Cutter Cruiser.

The Cargile Cutter Cruiser

A Cargile Cutter Cruiser is a family boat. The late Allen Cargile, designer and boat builder, made his name building houseboats found on lakes and rivers throughout America. According to his son Jim – who ironically, I met when he became engaged to one of our daughter’s sorority sisters – the idea for the Cargile Cutter design came from a family vacation to Key West. As they cruised back and forth past the US Coast Guard base, Allen stared long and hard at high-bowed U.S. Coast Guard cutters. In them, he saw the future of an affordable, planing hull, family cruiser with the roominess of a houseboat. A few weeks after the family returned home, his father walked out of his design room with a carved model of his vision for a Cargile Cutter Cruiser. The model was destined to become a reality.

In 1977, when some boat builders were still questioning Cargile’s design, he took a 30′, single diesel powered, sterndrive Cargile Cutter from New York to Paris in 31 days – a feat that none of his critics had ever accomplished. Ensign article P 1

Allen Cargile was a man of true grit. In his trip across the Atlantic Ocean, he proved his confidence in his boat.

I Want Your Boat

This story started in late 2012 when I received an email asking if we would consider selling the 1977, 30′ Cargile Cutter Cruiser that we had restored thirteen years earlier. SunSmiles was not for sale when I received Patrick’s first email. Though we had debated selling her, after restoration and nearly thirteen years of ownership, the ‘old girl’ was a part of our family. The only reason we considered selling her was the fact that following the birth of our first two grandchildren, our cruising time had become non-existent.

After we had come to terms on the sale, Patrick said, “You’re probably wondering why I wanted your boat.” Yes, I wondered why he had tracked me down through the Internet to try and buy a boat that he had never seen, and wasn’t for sale. SunSmiles from Naut-Less

He gave me a wonderful reason to sell the ‘old girl.’ When he was five years old, his father had bought a Cargile Cutter Cruiser for the family to enjoy. Now, he wanted his five year old daughter to grow up with the same wonderful memories he had of days aboard his family’s Cargile Cutter. Together, he and his daughter had searched the Internet for Cargile Cutters, and his daughter had chosen SunSmiles because she loved the name, the Fighting Lady Yellow hull, the high-gloss white decks, and the bright red canvas. Before taking delivery of SunSmiles, Patrick bought a Cadillac Escalade truck as a tow vehicle because his father had towed the family’s twenty-eight foot Cargile Cutter with the family’s Cadillac sedan. It was all part of reliving wonderful, childhood memories. I understood.

The History of Cargile Cutter Cruiser “SunSmiles”

SunSmiles was built the year that Allen made his historic voyage across the Atlantic. The first owner of the boat that was to become SunSmiles was a Texas oil man who apparently went belly-up, leaving the boat in a covered storage lot near Dallas, Texas. The second owner decided he wanted a Cargile Cutter Cruiser after touring the company’s plant in Nashville, TN in the early 1970’s. Unable to afford one at the time, he spotted the boat that would later become SunSmiles while making sales calls in the Dallas area during the late 1980s. He bought the boat for the price of several years of storage fees.

In the early 1990s, while driving from the Kalispell, MT airport to a meeting in White Fish, I saw my first Cargile Cutter in the side yard of a home. A couple of days later, I was given permission to inspect the boat. That afternoon I left that 28′ Cargile knowing that if we ever moved back to a coastal community, we would own a Cargile Cutter Cruiser. In 1999, when we made the decision to move from Raleigh, NC back to the Charleston area, I began my search for our family’s Cargile Cutter.

An internet search led me to Allen Cargile. Though retired, he welcomed my phone call and interest in the boat that carried his name. He became my treasured source of advice in choosing the right boat and in its restoration. Though only lukewarm on the idea of painting “his” boat Fighting Lady Yellow, with bright red canvas, he was very complimentary of the final product. When the restoration was complete, and we started cruising to destinations along the ICW, I enjoyed calling Allen while in route, just to let him know the pleasure his boat was bringing us. I wanted him to know that it was a boat that always got attention when we pulled into a marina. I’m not sure who enjoyed the calls more, but rarely did one end in less than a half hour of conversation. He was a warm, friendly, and fascinating gentleman to talk to.

On March 23, 2011, Allen passed away unexpectedly after a brief illness. If he had still been with us when we sold SunSmiles, I know it would have pleased him to know that it was going to another family that wanted a Cargile Cutter Cruiser – and no other boat would do.

Journey to a New Home

On Monday, March 18, 2013, SunSmiles began its cross country journey to a new family and homeport in Portland, OR. The decision to sell was made easier knowing she was going to a family much like ours, a family that specifically wanted a Cargile Cutter.

Patrick and his family never got to see, much less cruise aboard SunSmiles. On the forth evening of the trip disaster struck. Twenty-three miles out of Laramie, WY, on Interstate 80, at a place called Sherman Summit, SunSmiles and two tractor trailer rigs were hit by what the highway patrol described as a hurricane force wind that capsized and destroyed all three. By the grace of God, the tractor trailer drivers weren’t seriously injured. The trailer hauling SunSmiles broke free of the tow truck as a wind burst lifted the front of the boat and trailer into the air. Once the trailer hitch gave and the trailer was free, the trailer and boat began flipping. The driver was able to regain control of the truck and stop without crashing.

Fortunately, the boat and trailer were insured before leaving Mount Pleasant for the journey west. In the aftermath, I helped Patrick find another Cargile Cutter, and over the years since, his daughter – just like her dad – has been able to make her own memories of spending days with her family aboard their Cargile Cutter Cruiser. Today, the family lives on an island, across our northwest border with Canada. Patrick recently completed a multi-year restoration of his Cargile Cutter. Though he purchased a hybrid cruiser for the family to enjoy while their Cargile Cutter was being restored, he’s still hanging onto the old memory-making Cargile Cutter Cruiser. We stay in touch, and on my birthday in April, he called and we actually “face-timed” while he and the family were cruising. What we both lost in the wreckage of SunSmiles, we’ve made up for in friendship. Allen Cargile would be proud.

This Christmas, you may not be able to travel and enjoy family and friends like in Christmases past, but thank goodness technology has given us creative ways to be in touch, and spend time with our loved ones near and far. Family is what it’s all about.

Merry Christmas to all,

Oh Captain My Captain

Kippa by Donna

January 21, 2003 – May 6, 2016

“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.”

When Kippa woke me at 5:30AM on Friday morning, May 6, 2016. I knew it was her way of telling me the time had come. Just weeks before, her cancer had returned, surgery and treatments had failed, and she was ready to “Go Over the Rainbow.”

Kippa was special. She had “rescued” me following the March 2003 deaths of my dad, and Vic, the old Lab that we had rescued while living in Raleigh. Her mom was a beautiful English Springer, and her dad was a neighbor’s handsome black Lab. She would grow up to have her dad’s size and color, and her mom’s beautiful wavy coat.

On the Sunday morning after Vic’s passing, I found the English Day we met Kippa Springer/Labrador Retriever litter while reading the classifieds of the Sunday newspaper. A phone call, and the encouragement of our children, led to “Nana” and me driving to Edisto Island the following Tuesday to meet the little girl I had read about. When the owner picked her up for me to see, and I started rubbing her head and ears, her little paws locked around my wrist. The owner smiled, “I think you’ve been adopted.” She hung on long enough for “Nana” to walk back to the car, retrieve my camera, and return to shoot a pic.

As we drove home, “Nana” asked what I wanted to name her. My dad’s nickname in school was Kip. Because he’d been my best friend, I wanted to name her after him, but the names Kip or Kippy didn’t fit the newest addition to our family. “What about Kippa?” she asked. Perfect. The little girl from Edisto Island would be named Kippa.

Labs are water dogs, and Kippa was no exception. She may not have been a “boatyard dog,” but she was definitely a “cruising canine.” At five months old, she spent eight days with us, cruising aboard our restored Cargile Cruiser, SunSmiles, and to the day we sold the boat she never had an accident onboard. In her mind, she owned that boat. From the moment she jumped out of the car at the marina, she knew exactly what needed to be done before running down the dock and waiting for permission to board. On the first day of our eight-day cruise, she mastered climbing the three-step ladder from the raised cockpit to the sundeck to join us at the helm.

When Kippa was ten, we adopted Kate through the Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation of Winston-Salem, NC. Kippa accepted the little brown puppy as if it was her own. We credit Kippa with teaching Kate what our “pack” expected of her.

Though Kippa was obsessed with retrieving tennis balls, she was completely tolerant of Kate, the quick little puppy, outrunning her to the ball. I will forever treasure my video of Kippa slowly loping after her prized tennis ball the day before the she went “Over the Rainbow.”

Our vet, Dr. Scott Senf, of Animal Medical Center of Mount Pleasant was Kippa and family right, our four-legged family members will let us know in their own way when it’s time for them to leave us. At 5:30AM on May 6, 2016, Kippa let me know it was time for her to join Vic, Sullivan, Prince, BamBam, and Babs, “Over the Rainbow.” As soon as the practice opened, I called Scott. He was out of town, but Dr. Steven Epstein and the practice’s senior vet tech, Dawn, came to our home and took our precious Kippa’s pain away while she lay on her bed as her “Mom” and I held her and whispered our love and goodbyes.