LIVING HISTORY
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at it. Soon the young boy had a side painting business with
boat captains and owners.
BOAT BEGINNINGS
Curt’s passion for boating and fishing combined with
his intense curiosity to understand how things worked led
him to hang around boatyards, like Backus Boat Co. in Fort
Pierce. By watching Todd Backus ply his skills, Curt learned
how to construct a well-made boat.
When he turned 12, he decided to put that knowledge to
work and asked his father if he could build a 16-foot flatbottomed
skiff.
“Dad was very cooperative,” he said. “First he asked, ‘Do
you think you can do that?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I can do it!’ So I
built this boat and we used it out in the river, just above the
bridge, right down by the city dock.”
With his first boat a success, Curt became driven to create
a bigger and better vessel. About a year or two later when
he returned to Fortescue, he built a 20-foot, V-bottom,
smooth-planked boat in his backyard from plans in a Motor
Boating Magazine. With a 12-horsepower outboard engine
attached, he was soon transporting passengers from charter
boats to shore.
“When I got this boat, the captain would call on me,” Curt
said. “I charged 50 cents or a dollar to take the parties in, and
sometimes I got tips.”
BEGGING TO FISH
In those days, the Treasure Coast was becoming a hot
spot for fishing. Wealthy northerners would vacation at the
former Sunrise Inn, a luxury club in Stuart, which had scenic >>
WHITICAR FAMILY
Curt designed and built his first boat, a 16-foot flat-bottom skiff, at age 12.
TREASURE COAST BOATING
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