I was barely two months into a freelance writing career when an old friend, Ian Kirkwood, an Englishman living in Ireland, called with a question: "How would you like to come to Alaska with us and catch a king salmon on a fly rod?" The prospect of such an adventure would warm the blood of any fisherman worth his waders. But there was another element to the proposition.

You've seen the image in galleries and in fancy maritime calendars. It's an idyllic photo or painting depicting a dinghy dock somewhere in New England, boasting so many pretty, sharpprowed little boats that the water is all but obscured.

Sooner or later you���like most boat owners��� will give in to temptation and mess about with your boat���s DC (direct current) electrical system.

Never, ever, agree to take a 1,000 mile trek on a boat that you've have not seen, while seated in a bar several hundred miles away. Yet, this is exactly what I did about six years ago when I was a little younger, a little thicker in the skull, and perhaps still na√�ve to the strength of mother ocean.

While the CO produced by a gas-fueled propulsion engine is of concern, the motion of the boat aides significantly in dis-persing the exhaust,diluting the CO content of the air on the boat to generally acceptable levels.Exceptions to safed ispersal occur most often when the engines are left idling for long periods of time to charge batteries or if the stationwagon effect (negative pressure area behind a moving boat) draws the exhaust into the cockpit or into an interior compartment.In most cases,though,the great-est risk from CO poisoning comes from running theboat&#

Pursuit got the Drummond Runner 3480 exactly right. It���s stylish and built to very high standards. It���s fast, seakindly, reasonably economical to operate, and priced to match its quality. These are bold statements to be sure, and whether or not you agree with them depends on what you want from a boat.