Bill's Sailfish Marina The Man and His Marina 1954-1958 Home This is the earliest photograph I have of Roy's Boats after Dad and Ed Roehrich purchased Roy's Boats from Ralph Warner. Dad is standing in the doorway of the office. Directly across the jog in the seawall is where the present day restrooms are located. The columns supporting the overhead lift are from the old Singer Hotel. The parking lot in the background is where the boardwalk was built against the seawall in 1958 and later what is now the middle dock. The vacant lots in the background with Australian pine trees is where the present day parking lot and third dock are located. The dock in the distance is the Bucaneer Yacht Club dock. Dad in front of his rental boats. Gene Strain, "Uncle Gene", was actually my Mother's uncle. Gene was in Patton's army in WWII. After the war he was working for the Coca Cola Company before coming onboard with Dad. The soda machine (lower right) was invented by Ralph Warner from whom Dad and Ed Roehrich bought the boat yard. Uncle Gene on the old Hyster that was used to bring the rental boats to and from the overhead lift. Those little orange boats. The boats were wood 16' Correct Crafts. There were also 5 flat bottom boats with live wells for a total of 42 rental boats. The orange painted boats were well recognized on Lake Worth. Of course, not all the rentals made it back to the boat yard! The rental agreement the customer signed noted that the boats were not for use in the ocean. However, that didn't stop people who were determined to test their seaman ship! Here we have a few pictures that were taken before the boardwalk was built for the original four charter boats. The boardwalk was located approximately where the end of the green studebaker is and to the left. Later, he would replace the boardwalk with the present day middle dock. The present day ship's store is located from the Amoco sign to the overhead lift. The present day restaurant is located to the right where the brown car and grilled wall in these pictures. As a kid, growing up when your Dad owns a boat yard with rental boats and motors can be a lot fun. Every day after school, I would run or ride my bike there to help lift the returning rental boats out of the water, wash them down or just hang out with my buddies Billy Holman being cool or cutting up fish with Brian Valenti. My sister Etta also enjoyed spending time at the boat yard. Occasionally, well known personalities would rent boats. Here is Bert Lahr, who played the Lion in the Wizard of Oz with Al McClane who was the fishing editor for Field and Stream magazine. This is the paper chart we would give the people renting the lake boats who weren't familiar with the water hazards and relativily good fishing spots in Lake Worth. Notice this was before they filled in the North Palm Beach area and the Palm Beach Isles side of the lake which in effect put a layer of silt on the remaining grass beds and seawalls that bounced boat's wake back and forth across the intracoastal waterway. I was also able to go fishing, at first with Dad and later by myself, during slow times. The Notice On June 27, 1958, the charter boat captains at the Sailfish Center were each given this Notice. In the '50's, most charter boats on Singer Island were berthed at the Sailfish Center dock, next door to Dad's Roy's Boats. Lew and Del Parkinson happened to be the majority owners of the Sailfish Center during this period. They also owned a charter boat named the Charmer. Now the norm for a dock with charter boats is "rotation". When a call is made to the dock office to reserve a charter boat for a fishing trip, without specifying a particular boat or captain, the reservation is made for the charter boat at the top of the rotation. That charter boat is then moved to the bottom of the rotation. So, in effect, Parkinson completely did away with "rotation", took every charter that was called in to the office. The captains found out that this also included calls coming through the office of their own individual customers. In other words, if one of Frank Ardine's customers called through the office to book a charter with him, that customer could not book a charter with Frank on the Sail Ahoy if the Charmer happened to be open for that date. The final insult to the captains was the statement that any "left over" charters would be given to the captains that would "kowtow" the most to Lew and Del. This lead four captains, Frank Ardine of the Sail Ahoy, Bob Rast of the Comanchee, Johnnie Thomas of the Joker and Al Nathan of the Wendy II, to ask Dad for a meeting. They asked Dad if there was any way he could put four slips perpendicular to the seawall at the north end of his property. After some consideration and investigating the possibilities, Dad agreed. This, as it turned out, was the beginning of Bill's Sailfish Marina.