Pleasure Boatmen

A million-and-a-half pleasure craft, of which some 400,000 are motor boats, dot the waters of the U. S. Because of increased leisure and the creation of large artificial lakes as a result of Federal dam-building, the U. S. brotherhood of pleasure boatmen has expanded considerably in the past two years.

Last week in Manhattan's Grand Central Palace was held the 34th annual National Motor Boat Show, No. 1 rendezvous for pleasure boatmen. On display were 150 boats ranging from a 5-ft., $20 play boat to a 53-ft., $31,000 motor yacht. But the boats that attracted most attention were the 30-to-40-ft., $3,000-to-$ 10,000 cruisers, comfortable enough for week-end sporting or water-gypsy travel.

Many a boat buyer,* if his boat is delivered in time, will cruise to Florida this winter over the Government-promoted inland waterway from New York City to Miami (1,460 nautical miles). Each year some 2,500 boats from New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and surrounding States motor down through the network of rivers, streams and canals (there is still 50 miles of open sea). Like touring autoists, waterway tourists use road maps (Government charts), obey traffic signals (buoys). They treat sailing vessels as autoists treat pedestrians, park at anchorages instead of garages. Diehard water-gypsies, 100,000 strong, never get off their boats, live on them all year round.

*About $2,000,000 is spent at the show each year.

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