LEE GRAVES
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST
Jan 20, 2006
Al Gajarsky and I discovered that we share a passion - sports cars.
I grew up around MGs, bug-eye Sprites and Triumphs, and I still drive a ragtop two-seater (OK, it's a Jeep Wrangler with the back seat pulled out, but I love it).
Gajarsky favors Corvettes. He drives a '99 and also owns a '66.
While we were talking at the Central Virginia Boat and Water Sports Show on Sunday, Gajarsky nodded at one of the Yamaha personal watercraft he sells.
"This thing here reminds me of getting in [the Corvette] and stepping on the gas," he said.
Feeling close to the water, having the wind whip through your hair, combining speed with control, squeezing into places other craft can't manage - they appeal to that same spirit of fun.
Gajarsky owns Lake Country Power & Sport, a boat dealership at Lake Anna. PWCs are a hot item for him, and trends in both sales nationwide and boat registrations in Virginia indicate the sporty models are turning heads and opening checkbooks.
That's not to say they're taking marquee billing as the boat show season hits full throttle.
In fact, at the Virginia Boat Show this weekend, PWCs will be just one of the gang, sharing space with yachts, bass boats, runabouts, pontoon boats and many others.
Numbers tell a story, however. In Virginia, the number of registered PWCs has more than doubled in the past decade, from 10,328 in 1995 to 28,285 this year, according to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Nationwide, about 20 million Americans are riding PWCs, which last fall saw registrations up about 15 percent from the year before, according to an industry survey.
That's a hefty spike in a market that ran out of gas in the mid-1990s. The turnaround has come through four-stroke engines - which are more efficient, quieter and cleaner than two-strokes - and designs that have increased stability and passenger capacity.
"Today, three- and four-person family models are showing the strongest growth," says the Personal Watercraft Industry Association Web site.
Family considerations actually motivated one Yorktown couple to look beyond PWCs on Sunday. As 3-year-old Gracie Cannon perched on a gleaming blue-and-white Yamaha Waverunner, her mother, Stacey, explained that she and her husband, William, sold their PWCs and are in the market for something bigger.
"We loved them," she said. "We used to ride them almost every weekend during the summer."
Safety was a concern but not a barrier.
"You just have to know what you're doing and be constantly aware of the people around you," she said.
While PWC accidents in Virginia have declined the past 10 years, fatalities have caused concern. Three PWC-related deaths occurred in 2002 and 2004, and last summer, an operator died when two PWCs collided on Smith Mountain Lake.
A boating safety task force formed in the wake of that, and two other fatalities on the lake last summer, cited a statistic that made me think of another sporty vessel enjoying growth.
The stat: No collisions occurred over a five-year period in Virginia on the lakes and reservoirs restricted to boats with small engines, electric trolling motors or strictly paddle power.
Which brings us to the kayaks on display in another part of last weekend's show. A steady trickle of boating aficionados stopped to watch the pumping legs of a mechanical dummy demonstrate the Hobie Mirage pedal system.
"I've never seen one of these before. It's pretty neat, actually," Chesterfield County firefighter Scott McCormick said.
Kayaking, especially the recreational sit-on-top segment, has enjoyed substantial growth in participation in recent years, particularly among younger boaters, according to the Outdoor Industry Foundation.
That meshes with Ric Burnley's observations. A Virginia Beach outdoor writer and member of the Tidewater Kayak Fishing Association, he said the thirtysomething set is flocking to kayaking, for touring and fishing.
"It adds another element to fishing," he said. "You've been there and done that in a boat, and you want to go there and do it in a kayak."
The market sports many models and features. Hobie, for example, offers sails that can give you wind power while your legs are pedaling and arms paddling.
That might not generate enough speed to have the wind whipping through your hair. But turtles have a place on the water, too.
Contact Lee Graves at
outdoors@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6579.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet...ports!outdoors 
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