This is when experience speaks loudest. Brian and Michael grew up around boats and have worked all their lives in the marine industry. Michael’s first job was in Camden, Maine and he in fact spent his first years sailing widely – from ocean racing to local cruising. “I’m over that,” he says firmly. “I don’t miss my ass getting wet.”
Brian is Florida born and bred and used to commute to his father’s shipyard in a Chris Craft Scorpion 31. That’s like having a Mustang as your first car, I say. He nods happily. These days he’s traded up to a Fairline Squadron 65 and loves to spend weekends and holidays nosing around the Keys or chilling out in the Exumas.
Michael’s passion these days is ‘restoring things’, as he puts it. Freshly out of his workshop in Jupiter is an old John Deere tractor. But if he could choose any boat he liked, it would be a 45m Alloy Yachts cruiser. “Brian’s could be my chase boat,” he jokes.
“You could tow me,” Brian replies.
Intriguingly, they both seem to agree on one thing. When I ask them what famous person they’d like to have aboard, they both name George W. Bush. Now, it doesn’t matter what you think of his politics, there’s no doubt he would have a story or two to tell. “He’s a solid guy – a fun guy,” says Michael. “I see him as a genuine individual that I could truly spend time with.”