Cabin Cruiser

"I feel lucky, oh oh oh, I feel lucky, yeah No tropical depression gonna steal my sun away Mmmmm, I feel lucky today" THE LYRICS TO that Mary Chapin Carpenter song danced in my head Thursday as the Jil Carrie parted from the dock at Happy Harbor, bow pointed toward the Chesapeake Bay. Overhead was a thoroughfare of gray clouds running south to north with tiny potholes of blue sky poking through. Ophelia was doing her drunken dance about 300 miles down the coast, lurching to shore, then veering away, but pretty much in the same spot.

IT'S A SUMMER DAY on the Chesapeake Bay. A fishing boat is anchored at a well-known spot. The owner of a bigger boat, moving at a good clip, approaches from behind, believing he is overtaking a moving vessel. The operator of the larger boat should: a) slow down and figure out what's going on; b) slow down and give the smaller boat a wide berth; c) slow down and try to raise the other boat by radio or horn; d) party on, Garth. If eyewitnesses, including Coast Guard-licensed skippers, are to be believed, the operator of the large boat chose a variation on "d" on July 7. Natural Resources Police officers are still investigating the ramming of the charter boat Jil Carrie by the cabin cruiser Price Pirate.

A state tax law that went into effect last week has boat lovers smiling all the way down to their deck shoes.Just ask Brent Cohn, who had been eyeing a 35-foot Avanti cabin cruiser -- equipped with two staterooms, teak steps, a full galley and sprawling lounge -- and was waiting for the right moment.The moment came Wednesday, when the new trade-in law gave Cohn an extra incentive to swap his old 27-foot Bayliner for the new yacht: a savings of more than $1,100.Across the state, many boat owners are taking advantage of the barely week-old law that gives buyers a tax break when they trade old boats for bigger, better and more expensive models.

Capt. Ellery B. Woodworth had just recalled an old Navy line when he heard the cabin cruiser Katie Marie radio a distress call to the Coast Guard.His boat, Barcarole, a 30-foot rolling, pitching beauty of an old wooden boat built for the Chesapeake Bay, was headed due west in 45 miles of choppy Atlantic Ocean swells from Martha's Vineyard, Mass., to Block Island, R.I., before eventually sailing to Maryland.Woodworth's yarn, one of many flowing from his life in universities, politics, choral music and at sea, was the Navy order to new ship commanders: "Take her out, and bring her back, and don't hit anything."

OVER LONG YEARS of studying the once-abundant species of "Characterus Baltimorensis," in its native habitat along the Patapsco, I have discovered sewing machine repairmen who thought they were Franz Liszt; charity clowns who spent all contributions on blackberry brandy; and collectors of antique fire sprinklers. Now, as sure as marinas have replaced manufacturing, I am confident that Baltimore will never produce another character like Chester Rakowski. There may be a few like him swearing in nursing homes, but there ain't none squawking in nurseries.

Jason Pharmaceuticals Inc. grew fat when Oprah got thin, and thin when Oprah got fat again.That much is agreed upon by everyone connected with the Owings Mills-based marketer of the Medifast diet plan. But the agreement ends there.After rising to $51 million in annual sales during the late 1980s, the skyrocket that was Jason Pharmaceuticals landed last month in Baltimore's federal bankruptcy court, asking for protection from creditors while it reorganizes.Members of Jason's founding Vitale family say the company can recover from the slump that hit the liquid-diet industry after television talk show host Oprah Winfrey regained the weight she had lost on a rival plan called Optifast.

In Queen Anne's Officials investigating fire that destroyed yacht STEVENSVILLE - State fire officials are investigating the cause of a fire early yesterday that destroyed a yacht moored at Bay Bridge Marina, causing damages estimated at $95,000. The blaze, reported by a security guard at 1:19 a.m., destroyed a 35- foot 1993 Sea Ray cabin cruiser owned by Kay Kauffman of Catonsville, according to Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph G. Zurolo Jr. About 35 firefighters from Kent Island, Grasonville, United Communities and Queesntown fire companies responded to the blaze, which took 20 minutes to bring under controll.

Coast Guard finds body of man in fishing nets The body of a Montgomery County man was recovered from fishing nets in southern Anne Arundel County by Coast Guard rescue personnel late yesterday after his boat was found adrift near Chesapeake Beach, according to state Natural Resources Police. Walter Jarvis, 66, of the 3700 block of Jones Bridge Road in Chevy Chase, was pronounced dead about 5:30 p.m. A spokesman for the Natural Resources Police said the Coast Guard found Jarvis' cabin cruiser drifting near Chesapeake Beach.

A maritime rescue drill scheduled for Wednesday morning on the Severn River near Annapolis has been postponed because of a small-craft wind advisory, a Coast Guard spokesman said. The drill, involving a 64-foot cabin cruiser in distress and billowing smoke, was to be a training exercise for local Coast Guard units, members of Natural Resources Police, and rescue crews from Anne Arundel County, Annapolis and Kent Island. The National Weather Service has issued an advisory for the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay and the lower tidal Potomac River.

No injuries were reported in two one-alarm fires in Anne Arundel County that heavily damaged a boat in Pasadena and a warehouse in Glen Burnie last night, officials said. Authorities are unsure of the cause or origin of the fire on the 37-foot cabin cruiser, a 1985 Silverton named Definitely in Debt II, said Division Chief John M. Scholz of Anne Arundel County Fire Department. Units were dispatched at 7:17 p.m. to the boat, docked in Tar Cove off Rock Creek at McNabbs Lane, after a passer-by reported the fire.