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Mirage Communications Director Peter Swanson had this conversation with Forrest Dyar in May 2005. We wanted to know why a veteran professional mariner had chosen our trawler over other major brands.
Mirage: Forest, would you tell me what you do for a living?
Forrest Dyar: I’m a harbor pilot on the Savannah River. I bring ships in and out of Savannah.
Mirage: Have you been doing that very long.
Forrest: Twenty-five years.
Mirage: How old are you?
Forrest: Forty-four. Actually I’ve been on my own for 21 years. That was after an apprenticeship.
Mirage: I would imagine that most people have a general idea what a pilot does. You bring ships in and out of the Savannah River. Is it that simple or is it a little more complicated.
Forrest: We take the Pilot Boat, which is basically a water taxi, to the ships. We board them about 10 miles off the coast in the Pilot Boarder Grounds, and then we navigate them up. It’s about a 25-mile run. The Savannah River is narrow. We work 24-hours and most of our work is at nighttime, and it’s a busy port.
Mirage: How did you end up in that field of work?
Forrest: My uncle and cousin were pilots, and I rode with my cousin every now and then and just loved it. In the old days you had the guild system and the apprenticeship system, and the training was taking your son with you. It’s not quite the same now. The group is about half family and half not. We have retired sea captains and guys from the maritime academy.
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Forrest and and his family.
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Mirage: Your fellow pilot I talked to mentioned that you have “boat blood.” He said that for him being a pilot is just a job, but it’s obvious that you’d like to be on a boat whether on the job or not.
Forrest: I’d say that’s true. I was always sailing or in a bateaux. This type of boating—cruising—is very relaxing. On ships, you have to perform and you can’t say, “I’m sleepy. I’m not going.”
Mirage:You’ve had a series of your own boats then?
Forrest: I’ve had small boats and then my last boat was a Columbia 50. It was a sailboat, Bill Tripp design. He also designed that Hinckley Bermuda 40. Actually this N37 we named her the Ay Mon because I grew up on a little Pearson Triton named Ay Mon. The naming of this boat is a way of honoring my father. Before he died he was actually looking for trawlers to buy, investigating. He was an attorney and very thorough. He would always check something out to the Nth degree.
Mirage: Now back to that sailboat of yours, this is where your family comes in. You would take them sailing, your wife and three daughters?
Forrest: Yes they liked it, too. I think we wanted something with more room, and I couldn’t take a whole year off of work to sail, so I think that’s what drifted us toward a trawler. It could get places quicker and get us back to the pilots.
Mirage: So when did you decide to buy a trawler?
Forrest: Oh goodness. That’s a tough question because I was actually looking with my father before he died. I’ve had my eye open, not seriously, for at least 10 years.
Mirage: Can you describe the process that you went through? I know that I met you at the 2004 Miami Boat Show.
A. I had chartered a couple Grand Banks 36s, and took the family on them. It was real easy cruising. It wasn’t as demanding as a sailboat. We took a couple of those charters, and always looked around. Then we happened to see your article in the PassageMaker magazine (June 2002). I kept going back to that, back to that. Putting it back on the shelf, I had put it on the back burner, then I met you at the boat show. The timing coincided with my children’s activities, which are about an hour from Savannah at Hilton Head, so this boat is also going to serve as a functioning home.
Mirage: Do I understand it correctly that Ay Mon will serve as a mothership for a tennis academy?
Forrest: Yeah. Basically it’s going to be like that.
Mirage: What kind of features were you looking for?
Forrest: I wanted something that was seaworthy because I do want to travel in her. Also what caught my eyes was the design of the N37. I’m so used to pulling up the floorboards to jump down in the engine room. That was a big difference: all that engine
room space. And then the bosun’s locker was another plus. Altogether a huge amount of room. The design was unique. She has a low profile, which I like, because I want to put my little boats on top. And I like the flush foredeck. I like the room up there. The more you look at the more it seems to have a European or Dutch design. I actually showed a picture of her to some of my captain friends, Dutch friends. They have a name for the design—I can’t remember it—but it’s “Oh yeah, oh yeah, it’s such and such a type boat” that they have over there.
Mirage: In the boat shows we’ve had a number of Dutch people come aboard, and we have a deposit from one Dutch couple right now. When Dutch people say they like the boat, I always consider that high praise.
A. I think so.
Mirage: Because I think they have that same “boat blood.” They have a terrific eye for a good boat.
Forrest: My job is in the workboat industry. This boat really has a tug/workboat feel. She looks beefy and shippy. That’s one other thing that caught my eye. I was completely impressed with the design y’all took on.
Mirage: You mentioned that you have Hilton Head in your near future, but I would imagine with all the time you’ve had on the job, there’s some retirement there.
Forrest: Let’s say I hope so (laughing), but plans can change. We’re planning that once the children get through school, we’re planning on living on this boat and having just a small place as our land base.
Mirage: Have you started to dream about where you might want to take her?
Forrest: I would like to go to go on down south, just island hopping. I’d love to do New England up to Maine, and I would love to go to Alaska. In retirement we definitely will do it. Until then the Bahamas will probably be it until I retire. My sister lives in Costa Rica so we plan to visit her when we have ultimate time.
Mirage: The Ay Mon name is a Bahamian-based name, and your dad was thinking that when he named his Triton?
A. Right.
Mirage: Did you go to the Bahamas in the Triton?
Forrest: We did, and it was only 28 feet.
Mirage: How many of you would go on her?
Forrest: (Laughing). He’d pack a lot of people on board. I guess we had at least six at times. A lot of times he would sail down there with the guys, and then the family would meet him down there. Nolw, I look at how small that boat was, and I don’t know how he pulled it off.
Mirage: How did we all do it?
Forrest: Yeah. He owned that boat with my cousin Harry. He was the retired pilot. They took it down there quite a bit.
Mirage: Was your grandfather a sailor, too?
Forrest: Nope. Just my father. My father loved the water and served in the Merchant Marine, loved to sail obviously. Harry was a pilot and his father was a pilot.
Mirage: How do your daughters do on the boat?
Forrest: They do well. They enjoy it.
Mirage: Will they be driving the boat?
Forrest: Oh yeah.
Mirage: Driving and docking?
Forrest: Yes. They will. They’ll be playing with it. They love the water, too.
Mirage: Thanks, Forest.
Forrest: You’re welcome.
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