When you first glimpse the wooden boat sitting on a cradle in front of the IGFA Hall of Fame and Museum in Dania Beach, you might mistake it for a restored Cuban refugee vessel.
The lapstrake design, low freeboard and mast on the shiny, white-painted "Avalon" are common features of fishing boats that freedom seekers often commandeer out of Havana Harbor.
But the Avalon never made it anywhere near Cuba, although the man who had it built in 1927 probably would have loved to use it for marlin fishing around the island.
The Avalon belonged to author Zane Grey, and now it is on permanent display in South Florida.
"It's a piece of history and needs to be preserved," IGFA president Mike Leech said. "As far as I know, it's the only one of Zane Grey's boats still in existence."
According to the IGFA, Grey had the Avalon built at the New Zealand shipyard Collings & Bell to be used as a day-fishing boat towed around behind his 146-foot live-aboard yacht, "The Fisherman."
The Avalon was based at New Zealand's Bay of Islands and run by Grey's boatman Peter Williams on fishing excursions around New Zealand and Australia.
Grey and Williams fished it until 1935, when Grey went to California. He became ill and died in 1939.
Since then, the Avalon has changed hands several times. The status of Grey's other boats is unknown.
Two years ago, Leech and Jack Anderson, vice chairman of the IGFA, were visiting New Zealand for the 75th anniversary of that country's Big Game Fishing Council when they spied the Avalon tied to a dock at Bay of Islands.
The boat had been modernized to include a flybridge and state-of-the-art electronics, and was for sale.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.