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| 04/22/12
The Right Products
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To determine how badly faded a hull is, owners should rub the surface with a clean rag. If the chalky surface rubs off onto the rag, the gelcoat is heavily oxidized and needs some work. ...
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| 04/19/12
Secret First Loves
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When we were dating, Vic told me that he had been in love before. Apprehensively, I waited to hear love stories that didn’t involve me. The first true love of his life, my husband said, occurred when he was only 12 years old. He had an affair with an older sailboat. He even made a set of sails for it…from...
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| 04/16/12
Tootsies Treat
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When Steve and Leah Smith first bought Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in downtown Nashville, they had no idea how the Tennessee business would change their lives. The historical country music tavern that has helped launch many singing careers as well as inspire hit songs, has been a great adventure for this...
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| 03/09/12
Houseboat rentals prove to be a popular niche
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Owners Lisa May and Steve Rehn set up the business nine years ago after seeing a gap in the market between skippered fishing charters and high-end expeditions.
But they had no idea it would be so successful.
After initially building one houseboat, they soon realised that more would be needed.
The...
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| 03/08/12
Custom boatmaker refloated by customer
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Entrepreneur Jeb Griffith is plotting a course for growth after taking the helm of SkipperLiner, a custom houseboat and commercial passenger boat maker in La Crosse, Wis.
Griffith was a loyal SkipperLiner customer before he acquired the company in November 2010, having owned at least seven of its...
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| 03/07/12
Cruising through France at 3 knots
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Our friend Jan Gulley came up with the idea of cruising through the canals in the countryside of France on a houseboat. Sounds like fun, we all said, so the research started.
The funny thing about research is it doesn't matter how much you do; some things are just meant to be figured out when you...
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| 02/22/12
Can you beat this? 36 years spent long range cruising
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They have travelled four times around the world on boats they built themselves, spent an amazing 36 years long range cruising, and now in their eighties, have decided to call it a day and go back to live in their home town of Rochester - not in a house but a houseboat.
Bill and Laurel Cooper started...
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| 02/07/12
Houseboat company floats back to business
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One employer feeling encouraged and just starting to come back from the brink is Majestic Yachts, Inc. They're a houseboat manufacturer in Columbia, Kentucky. I first came across Majestic three years. Jim Hadley, the president and CEO, had laid off dozens of employees, the machines had gone silent in...
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| 02/02/12
Isolation is a way of life for Whittier residents - Particularly in winter
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Arlen Arneson has a long driveway.
Ninety miles outside of Anchorage, at the end of Portage Valley Road, through a two-mile tunnel under the mountain, Arneson lives in a houseboat at the end of Float B in the Whittier small boat harbor.
In the winter, the narrow dock to his front door is coated with...
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| 01/30/12
Houseboat industry eyes new venture for comeback
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Kentucky's houseboat manufacturers once thrived by churning out luxurious floating residences, but the industry was nearly capsized by the economic downturn. Now it's dabbling in a new venture as it looks for a different course — the construction of moderately priced, energy efficient landlocked homes.
Houseboat...
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