May / June 2023

Staying the Course

The resurrection of a classic sportfisherman

Randall Peffer

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SEA REBEL is a 45’ sport sherman with a classic Carolina broken sheer. She was designed by Warren O’Neal, whose boats revolutionized sport shing after World War II. The boat has recently undergone a refit and is impeccably maintained.

Before this boat, I was lost. I was a little bit lost,” says 81-year-old Warren Jacques. Like a lot of seafarers and fishers, he finds some of his best reflection time when he’s on watch at sea.

It is September 3, 2022, and he’s alone at the helm on the flying bridge. It’s 0400 and still dark on the North Atlantic as his custom, Carolina-built sportfisherman SEA REBEL heads offshore for Tuna Ridge south of Block Island. The twin Detroit Diesel 871s growl as they push against a 2-knot head tide. But the boat is running well. She’s up on plane, making 17 knots, sipping fuel at 1,700 rpm.

The seas have a gentle roll. There’s barely any wind this morning. SEA REBEL left Star Island Marina on the eastern end of New York’s Long Island 45 minutes ago. Visibility is unlimited. Astern the 168' tower of Montauk Point Light winks out its coded message every 5 seconds. Sometimes over the years it has seemed like a warning to Jacques to give up on this old wooden boat. Sometimes the past 29 years with SEA REBEL have felt like a constant battle against dark Fates.

“But the boat has saved me as much as I have saved the boat,” he will tell folks on the dock at Star Island later, when they come by to admire the classic Carolina “broken sheer” and the pristine condition of this 55-year-old wonder. He will imply that his nearly three-decade obsession with perfection and this boat came in response to “emotional distress.” And he’ll leave it at that.

This morning is not about old troubles. Jacques is hoping for good fortune. Today is not just another one of his hundreds of offshore fishing trips in SEA REBEL. For almost three decades she has been “Warren’s boat,” a place separate from his family where he retreated to find peace of mind, to pursue a finicky restoration, and to fish with his buddies.

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