Absolutely. I caught part of a program recently about a company up in Jersey that refurbs older wood hull sailboats and runabouts. The skill and craftsmanship involved is as grand as the finsihed product.
If by some chance some of my seriously flawed but well intentioned financial strategies ever bear fruit, my first purchase will be a used boat and my next will be a piece of dirt somewhere on the gulf coast wherever I can find the least amount of human habitation.
Kinda like the main character in your book.
BTW...You done any good fishing lately? A friend and I are going on our yearly October trip out of Destin to catch the end of snapper-grouper season. Last year we brought back around 100 pounds of fillets, and probably threw back just as much.
No big ones, but we had 4 grouper over 14 pounds and 5 snapper over 12 pounds. Caught and released two 8' bull sharks(I think it was the same shark) and all of us hung fish that we couldn't budge off the bottom, which is something I've never personally experienced, being mostly a landlocked freshwater fisherman most of my life. Kinda makes me pay more attention when I'm watching the fishing shows and Flip Pallot is playing a 100 pound Tarpon on a fly rod as whispy as a hickory switch.
Only in my fictional dreams! Man, that is solid gold! Two of the best fish meats on the planet, what a haul!
My mouth is watering to ponder it.