Blue Water Sport Fishing Charters

History of the Charterboat Old Hatt

By Phil Bowie

From the small Cessna a quarter mile high and some 60 miles out over the dazzle of an empty, very wrinkled ocean, with no marine frequency in the panel, the chances of finding a particular boat below seemed extremely remote, Suddenly there was a white exclamation mark about four miles off in the haze - a whitecap that refused to dissipate,

We spiraled down to 100 feet and skimmed closer, her overall lines, the outdated trunk cabin, the over sized cockpit, and finally the bold name on the transom confirmed it. We had located the Old Hatt during her forty-fifth sortie of the season over the deep canyons that lie off the Delmarva Peninsula,

The boat was cutting solidly through heavy swells at trolling speed, her outriggers nodding gracefully; she looked comfortably at ease in her element. We waggled our wings and headed for shore, Had we circled just ten minutes longer we could have watched Old Hatt's owner, Morey Stein, hook up to a 600-pound white marlin,

Four months earlier Morey had caught another white marlin, a six footer that earned him a certificate from the mayor of Ocean City, Maryland, and a ceremonial dunking in the waters of Sinepuxent Bay at the hands of his happy crew. It was the first white marlin of the year, an event that heralded a good season for most Ocean City boats and an excellent one for the Old Hatt, one that saw her anglers tangle with a 500-pound swordfish, for example, and take home a 450-pound blue marlin, and raise 22 white marlin during one typical tournament, releasing one of those they hooked and bringing two back to the docks.

Such accomplishments aren't especially remarkable until you consider that the Old Halt is well into her nineteenth year now, which makes her nearly as old as the Hatteras Yacht Company itself. She still carries her original engines and shows only minor changes in hardware and equipment, yet she can still take on seas that force other boats to turn back,

The First Diesel Hatteras

The boat was built in 1960 and named the Wits End, (The first Hatteras was called the Knit Wits in honor of the textile businessmen who funded the venture.) It was the sixth 41 Convertible Yacht Fisherman to be laid up in a High Point garage under the critical eye of Hatteras founder Willis Slane, and the first to be powered by diesels. Slane chose freshwater-cooled GM 60V-53 models, the same power plant used extensively to drive cross-country buses. For maximum efficiency each engine was fitted with dual exhausts and, to make service easier, the entire salon sole was constructed of removable

honeycomb aircraft aluminum panels, tiled with cork to cut down on the noise. A 3-kw belt-driven generator was installed, along with six batteries, three for engine starting and three for ship's services.

To make absolutely certain the hull would carry the heavy engines without protesting, it was intentionally overbuilt, with extra-thick glass sections, four full-length longitudinal members, and five transverse bulkheads. With a strong resin-and aggregate cutaway keel and the standard 14-foot beam, the boat drew three feet, two inches when launched.

An intensive GM ad campaign in 1961 featured the Wits End, acclaiming her 28-knot top speed and her 24-knot cruising speed at 2500 rpm, spinning 24x27 three-bladed wheels through 2:1 reduction. Fuel consumption proved to be a relatively low 12 gallons per hour at cruise, giving her a 600-mile range with two 150-gallon tanks. Despite being "overbuilt" she weighed in at a modest 20,000 pounds - modest, that is, by today's standards.

The boat's interior amenities were distinctly Hatteras in extent and style, and featured warm, finely-fitted mahogany and teak throughout, extra storage everywhere, and a stand-up shower. The deck and flybridge were white and the hull was light green, with trim stripes in black and gold. The first owner was A. R. Moyer of Oxford, Maryland, who used her for occasional fishing and several extensive cruises, one of which took her well up into Canadian waters. Moyer sold the boat to Dr. Stuart Rowe of Pittsburgh, who kept her under the name El Mar III until September of 1966, when he sold her to E. Rogers Oliver of Chevy Chase, Maryland.

It was the second Hatteras for Mr. Oliver, a manager of customer relations for Southern Railroad. He sold his Hatteras 28-foot Cruiser in order to purchase the EI Mar III, which he renamed the Revilo (his named spelled backwards) and kept for exactly a decade. "My son went for his first cruise on it when he was only eleven days old," Oliver said. "We used it as a family boat and practically lived on it during the summers. That boat took us through some pretty wicked storm waters on the Chesapeake Bay, and I can tell you that more than once I was glad it was a Hatteras."

Over the years Oliver had a few changes made. He added a teak cockpit sole and louvered companionway doors, and had a pass through cut into the port galley bulkhead so Mrs. Oliver could easily deliver meals to the family and guests in the salon. The standard model diesels produced more than a little exhaust smoke, so he had Johnson and Towers convert them to the smokeless N series.

The Olivers found they had increasingly fewer weekends for cruising, and finally decided that a smaller boat would be more practical for them. "Otherwise you can bet I'd still have that 41 ," he said. "It's a fine machine."

Old Hatt Goes to Work

Morey Stein of Severna Park, Maryland, is an Army veteran who won 12 air medals serving as a forward observer in Vietnam, flying a light plane equipped with marker

rockets. He is now a first officer with Allegheny Airlines. He's also a dedicated fisherman, as he has been since his boyhood cane-pole and-cricket days. In 1976 he was searching for a reliable sportfisherman. "My dream was to have a machine that I could go outside on even when the seas kicked up," he said. "Marlin fishing out of Ocean

City is as tough a job as I can think of for a boat, so for me that meant I had to have a Hatteras."

When Morey first laid eyes on the Revilo, he knew it was the machine he'd been looking for. He closed the deal, treated the boat to a new set of outriggers and a bright coat of white Imron, aptly named her the Old Hatt, and promptly put her to work earning her keep as a billfishing charter boat.

Her burly, bearded captain is Jack "Bluewater" Marler, who has for the last 30 years skippered all sizes of commercial and pleasure craft out of more U. S. mainland and Caribbean Island ports than I could name, He once swapped fishing lies over grog with Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, has captained several treasure expeditions on boats rigged for deep diving, and recalls enough angling encounters with bluewater denizens to carryon a fascinating narration well into the small hours of a morning.

During one busy period last season, Marler worked the Old Hatt for 37 days straight. At such times he lives aboard the boat, which obviously suits him to the same degree that the venerable Pilar so well suited Hemingway,

I asked Captain Jack for his honest opinion of the Old Halt's capabilities. He clamped down on his pipe for a couple of puffs and then said, She's a good, dry boat. I've been in some rough seas with her and she keeps on going. And she can sure raise the marlin. You don't have to take my word for that; just ask any of those who've fished with us.

Late on the afternoon of the same day that I had flown over the Old Hatt as she prowled the offshore canyons, I stood on the dock and watched Morey Stein and his mate, George Smith, unload a beautiful 50-pound white marlin. The previous night, Morey had piloted a flight from Cincinnati to Baltimore, and had arrived in Ocean City by car at 4:30 a.m., in time to change and go fishing at 5;30, so he was bone-tired, but he was happy. As he surveyed his catch, he said, "We're going to cut some big steaks from this one, anybody who hasn't tasted smoked marlin doesn't know what they're missing.

A few dock-walkers gathered to see the catch, but nobody seemed at all surprised.

Evidently, around Ocean City, the event is pretty much old hat.