Meeting the Whitman Family
In the fall of 2007, I
went to
Chicago to pick up a 48' Silverton to bring to Florence. The
first day out, I met a nice couple who were doing the great loop in a
40' Grand Banks East Bay for their honeymoon. They had spent
most
of their boating time on the East Coast and had little experience on
the rivers. After a short visit, they decided that they would
travel with me until we got to the Tenn Tom Waterway. We
spent
several days together and really got to know each other. When
we
arrived at Aqua Yacht Harbor, my wife joined me and we all had dinner
together. We decided to meet up again at Orange Beach, AL in
a
week since we were going to be there anyway. Three more days
together really strengthened our relationship. Then a week
before
Thanksgiving, I was bringing another boat from Virginia Beach to Palm
Beach and decided to spend Thanksgiving in South Florida. So
I
went to see Todd and Karen in Miami. I went to Thanksgiving
dinner with the Whitman Family at the beautiful Indian Creek Country
Club in Miami Beach. The Whitmans treated me like family.
Todds parents are very interesting and have accomplished many
things in their lives. Mr. Dudley Whitman built the very
first
fiberglass boat. He and his brothers also pioneered surfing
the
East Coast of Florida on surf boads they built themselves.
They
have a private museum that I was invited to visit. It was
phenomenal! While fiberglass was already in the development
stages, Mr. Whitman was one of the first people to apply it
to a
boat. The museum has two of the original models that he built
at
his company, Challenger Marine. His story goes on and on and
I am
including some links below to learn more about him and his brothers.
I hope that you find it as interesting as I did.
Dudley Whitman
Obituary
of brother Bill Whitman on Legendary Surfer