Raymond Carver's boat is for sale on eBay

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Friday, October 1, 2004

Raymond Carver's boat for sale on eBay

It's a salmon boat with a literary pedigree, a vessel that carried the legendary writer Raymond Carver out of Port Angeles on fishing expeditions with fellow writers.

Now, the 1978 Olympic Hardtop, celebrated in poem and story, is listed for sale on eBay with the auction closing on Oct. 5.

There were 11 bids on the boat yesterday, but none had met the $3,000 minimum set by Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, who hopes that a lover of Carver's work will appreciate the boat's special history.

Carver, who died in 1988, enjoyed some of his sweetest times on the boat, just as he had predicted in a poem: "People are going to have fun, and do what they want to do, on my boat." Gallagher recalls those times: "My brothers and I taught Ray to salmon fish on this very boat. I was his captain much of the time and ran the boat while Ray baited hooks and kept the gear in line, hauled in fish. He was one of the luckiest fisherman going."

Carver's boat, with trailer, is listed in the eBay motors section as item number 2491398145.

source:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/193202_tf101.html

auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2491398145