savor — guide to food & dining on the azalea coast
JOY RIDE
By Marimar McNaughton
Photography by Joshua Curry Photography assisted by Matt Miller Styled by Dawn Moffitt Design
LIBERTAS is not John McCauley’s first boat.
Just as the young mariners of Wrightsville Beach enter boating today, McCauley was
weaned on Boston Whalers and center console fishing boats.
With his lifelong friend Chris Bailey, before they had drivers’ licences, they took a
Hatteras sportfisherman down the Intracoastal Waterway from Morehead City to Florida.
“We spent a lot of time on the water moving boats for people,” McCauley says. “I grew up
fishing with friends, Dr.
Bob Caviness and his
son, Watson.”
McCauley, a pave-ment
contractor from
Fayetteville, co-owned
a 55-foot Viking with
Dixon Dickens that he
says was too much boat.
“We just wanted
to be able to pick up
and go late in the
afternoon and ride
around,” he says.
Today, his newly
restored, vintage
1997 37-foot Hinckley
Picnic Boat is a perfect
fit for his family of
four.
McCauley says he
had always admired
the Hinckley boats and
mentioned it to Bailey,
who knew that former
Lieutenant Governor
Bob Jordan’s Sea Saw,
Top: Ready for a picnic, the spread is laid out on the aft deck.
Opposite: Libertas heads for its home dock at Seapath Estates.
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WBM june 2013