Some Elwood Starn Trivia

The 65 foot Elwood Starn was named for a real captain who sailed for Starn fleet of tour/fishing boats based out of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The patriarch of that family (back in the 1930’s through 1969) was Capt. Clarence Starn, who was well known for his seamanship and even more so for his business prowess. Elwood Starn was Captain and master of the motor vessel “Malabar” in the mid-1940s.

Did you ever notice for the first few years, the Starn would go missing from Naples in the summer months? That’s because she motored north for the “$ummer $eason” in Atlantic City, NJ. She would return to Naples prior to “Tourist $eason” with a fresh coat of paint and any refitting complete. It was always cool to see her moored there for the first time each year. It just felt right.

I went to high school with the step-son of the then current skipper “Capt. Frank” (Diebold?). Anyway . . . his step-son was a pal of mine and a star player on the NHS basketball team; I will refer to him simply as “Batman”.

Capt. Frank had a new ’65 or ’66 Cadillac 2-door Coupe De Ville, BLACK, long, and low; we called it “The Batmobile”.

Batman, being a good kid, and the “star athlete” he was, had the Batmobile at his disposal nightly. The Captain Starn had a huge cooler that was stocked with sodas and beer daily . . . We were 16-17 year old kids . . . we had no interest in the sodas.

In the middle of the night (for us, in the mid-60's, that was after 8 p.m.), we would stealthily arrive dockside in the “Batmobile” and off-load the remaining ice cold beer. The cops knew the car belonged to Capt. Frank and never bothered to check why the car was parked down by the boat at night. Sometimes we would just sit there and drink until the beer was gone, sometimes we would cruise in the “Batmobile” doing our 60's version of “low-riding”.

The important point here is “free beer".

Thank you Capt. Starn; thank you Capt. Frank; thanks "Batman".