Its
not everyday you see one of these cruise through the harboror
docked at the local marina. Thats because Cosmic Muffin,
the boat you see in the photo on the right, is a true
one of a kind: At one time, she was a 1939 Boeing 307 Stratoliner
airplane complete with wings, tail, and cockpit, and she actually
flew. (The 307 was the first commercial pressurized aircraft and
a variant of the B-17 Flying Fortress. Only ten 307s were built,
all in the late-1930s. Production was stopped at the outbreak
of war in Europe in September 1939.) For more than 20 years, Cosmic
Muffin was a houseboat for her proud liveaboard owner, David
Drimmer. Today she rests dockside in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, open
to the public for touring or chartering. But the story of how she
came to be what she is today is even weirder than her looks.
It
all began when industrialist and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes
acquired the plane in 1939 as part of his purchase of Trans World
Airlines (TWA). Ten years later Texas oil baron Glenn McCarthy,
whos life was immortalized by James Dean in the movie Giant,
purchased the plane, which he dubbed The Shamrock. In 1962
the plane arrived in Fort Lauderdale, and Florida Jet Research bought
it. Then in 1964 the plane suffered extensive damage from Hurricane
Cleo, ending its flying days. Drimmer says its then-owner, aircraft
broker Joseph MacCaughtry, who bought the plane sometime around
1963 or 1964, took a $40,000 loan out to fix it, then defaulted,
after which the bank removed everything of valueengines included.
From then until 1969 it was left derelict, abandoned, open,
and unlocked...people would come aboard and lounge around,
Drimmer reports.
Later
that year the airplane was declared abandoned property and put up
for auction. Ken London, a private pilot, came in with the winning
bid: a whopping $62. Drimmer says, He [London] thought, What
can we do besides cutting it all up? Thats when he came
up with the wacky idea of making it into a motoryacht. And
so, after some extensive work that included removing the wings and
tail with an acetylene torch, London took the remaining fuselage
to a nearby boatyard. In 1974 he launched the former 307 as a seaworthy
vessel dubbed The Londonaire.
Herb
Werner purchased the vessel in 1977 for $60,000, under an agreement
whereby, according to Drimmer, Werner would make payments and give
London a Ford Thunderbird. Only London never got eitherluckily
for him, he never signed over the title. Allegedly, the boat was
in a yard for a refit when Werner suffered a massive heart attack
and died on the operating table. His estate abandoned the vessel,
and the yard doing the refit work took possession of it. When no
one would pay the $12,000 yard bill, it was again put up for auction.
In
1981, after receiving no bids, the yard put an ad in the local classifieds,
promoting the plane-boat as a unique 56-foot houseboat. A
true bachelor pad. For sale for $8,500. Drimmer,
who at the time was renting an apartment in the area, was looking
for a new place and came across the ad. He says, I was looking
for something livable and affordable, and this sounded good. When
I saw it, I said, Holy crap! Its a floating plane!
Drimmer, who had no marine background, decided he just had
to have it, and $7,500 later, it was all his.
Everybody
thought I was crazy when I said I wanted to buy it, Drimmer,
who earns a modest salary working in the printing industry, told
me during a phone interview. A friend of mine with an extensive
nautical background who was helping me shop for a liveaboard boat
begged me not to buy it, my Mom begged me not to buy it, my lawyer
begged me not to buy it, but I just had to have it...I found the
tubular look and shape terribly intriguing and fascinating; it was
a very welcoming, open kind of warmth, and I could see beyond the
mess and enjoy the novelty of what it really was. After a
pause and a chuckle, he adds, Its funny. Rich people
that do something like that get called eccentric; poor
people are crazy.
Next
page > Part 2: Ive
finally learned the secret of boat repairs: Do your estimate, crunch
your numbers, and whatever figure you come up with, double it.
> Page 1, 2, 3,
4
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