ABOUT THE BOAT

ale Bryant, who is the Project Manager for Jasper II, gets the credit for hatching the Jasper egg that John Kolanach laid two years ago. Last June, he mentioned the boat project to Bob Lyon. Bob said that John had mentioned wanting to do the dragon head. Dale told Bob that he was interested in finding the right boat and thought he had done so. When he showed Bob the pictures of a Duffy Electric, he said go for it.

The Duffy is a smaller version of the original Jasper Boat but with the same classic lines. Dale does a lot of work on eBay, so he started his web search for a gently used Duffy. Here's how he tells it:

"I found the one we ended up buying on BoatTrader.com. I watched it all summer long and in October the Marina ended up putting it on eBay. I was the high bidder on eBay but it did not meet the reserve. I called the Marina and after some creative negotiations we bought the boat .A friend and I went to Detroit in between two ice storms and brought the boat to Elmira. When John first saw it he knew it was the right boat."

"To date, we have had 14 people take the first course and test to get our New York State Joint Pilot and Engineers License. We have one more test to take. The Marine inspectors will come and give us that test and do the final inspection on Jasper II."