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Boys and their toys. by Perkal

"BOYS AND THEIR TOYS

Something from the

shipping department

All of Bob Yunaska's customers are serious about boating, he says.

They ought to be.

The 63-foot version of a Sunward yacht usually costs about $750,000, and it's no casual process to place an order. Buying a yacht from Sunward Yacht Corp. of Wilmington means about a year of going to boat shows, looking at designs, visiting the plant and test sailing other yachts - all this before an order is written. (At which point the buyer plunks down $10,000 upfront money.)

After that, it's a 10- to 18-month - or longer - wait while a six-person crew actually builds the yacht.

But the lengthy, pricey process isn't enough to deter the really serious sailor. Sunward, which has built 22 yachts since Yunaska went into business in 1976, generally builds two boats a year.

Walter Cronkite is one big fish who bought a 48-foot yacht - Sunward's smaller model, which goes for about $375,000. California native Yunaska, a mechanical engineer, now has 15 employees.

Add on the options, and prices can go considerably higher. Sunward has built a 63-foot yacht that cost nearly $1 million.

Among the choices buyers face: a 178-piece handmade teak steering wheel (most are made of stainless steel), 24 different floor plans, an enclosable cockpit for foul-weather sailing and 135- or 210-horsepower diesel engines.

You can also add other touches. ""One guy installed a Jacuzzi,"" Yunaska says. ""He charters the boat. After a hard day's playing, they like to sit in the Jacuzzi and unwind.""

Other buyers go in for electronic gadgetry such as cellular phones and single-sideband radios, which allow them ""to communicate around the world.""

He adds: ""There are those who like a minimum of those things. Walter Cronkite was anxious to eliminate the ability for people to get ahold of him.""

Cronkite didn't even put a television on his yacht. ""I guess it seemed too much like work,"" Yunaska says.

A perfect gift for

the upwardly mobile

Tired of making business deals in smoke-filled rooms? What better way to get out of the office, impress a client and gain perspective on life than to buy your own hot-air balloon?

For about $13,000, you can get the standard model from Balloon Works Inc., a 17-year-old company in Statesville, where the nation's second-oldest balloon rally is held each year. For a fancier model - like the corporate-logo balloons many of its customers buy - expect to pay about $40,000.

The company has made hot-air balloons in many forms (one was shaped like a condom, says President Eleanor Conn) and can do all sorts of graphics: logos, photos, changeable pennants, parts that protrude - a bow tie, for example. In 1982, it sold one to magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes, who gave the balloon to the Chinese government. These days, Europe and Japan are proving to be strong markets.

The 23 people in production work on several at a time, turning out a seven-story balloon in about 75 days. Half the money has to be paid up front, with the balance due on completion.

And don't think such a big item can't be kept secret if you want to surprise the board of directors: Balloon Works gets several gift orders a year from both corporations and individuals.

So the whole idea sounds to you like a lot of hot air? If you want to see how much cold, hard cash it would take to float your logo, initials or just a favorite color across the sky, send them the graphics, and they will quote you a price. According to Conn, about 40 percent of the estimates result in orders. It's hard to say why the rest fall through. ""Sometimes a president may hate balloons because one once landed in his rose garden,"" she says. ""We don't know when it's just personal prejudice.""

A `fluid' swing for

the boss on the ball

If reading the green sounds like more fun to you than reading annual reports, talk to Howard Sasse (pronounced ""sassy""), owner of Wood Wand Corp. in Southern Pines.

A native New Yorker who came South in

Founder and CEO Reggie Fountain, a three-time world-champion racer of tunnel boats - a type of high-speed racing boat - planned to return to competion last month in a 45-foot superboat-class prototype. It will have three racing engines with more than 1,000 horsepower apiece. Cost? ""Lots,"" says Marketing Vice President Craig Muir - each engine runs more than $50,000. Speed? ""Very fast,"" Muir says - in excess of 100 mph, although Fountain isn't really sure what its top speed will be. Reggie Fountain will also be racing two other prototypes: a 40-footer with two 1,000-horsepower engines and a 46-footer with four engines.

A Canadian businessman bought Fountain's most expensive boat ever, which retailed for about $300,000. But with the features and options available, there's no ceiling on price.

Some of the possibilities: special exterior and interior graphics, leather interior, custom lighting, airconditioning, room for up to four people to sleep, wet bar, toilet and fridge. Muir acknowledges it's not that easy to control a boat traveling at 85 mph or more. ""It's like trying to fly an airplane across the surface of the water,"" he says. So the price of every Fountain Powerboat includes an instructional video.

Let Banjo string

you one together

If Bill Elliot trusts him with his car, you probably can, too.

Banjo Matthews raced stock cars until 1963 and has built them since the 1940s. At Banjo's Performanceter in Arden, he builds chassis and makes components for NASCAR stock cars. He's worked on autos for Elliot, Harry Gant and other NASCAR drivers.

Although he's never done it for a layperson, Matthews has the contacts and the know-how to find and rebuild a car driven by somebody famous. He says he could probably get his hands on a wrecked Jack Ingram, Junior Johnson or Harry Gant car and fix it up like a show car - even get it ready for racing.

A car rebuilt to race could run from $35,000 to $75,000 after the body work and engine repair. Of course, Matthews says, then it wouldn't be legal to drive on the street because it wouldn't have a muffler, headlights or a few other essentials.

Matthews' main concern in rebuilding a car as a showpiece is safety. He knows how enthusiastic racing people are, and he knows how to make a car as safe as possible. ""You always have to treat a show car like a race car,"" he says, ""because somebody's liable to take it to a race track and try to race it.""

If you did have a mind to do something of the sort, Humpy Wheeler of the Charlotte Motor Speedway says he rents out the track for $1,500 a day, fire trucks and rescue workers included. He's seen people with their collections of Porsches or Ferraris get out and test the limits of their rolling stock"

This article was published on Sunday 03 December, 2006.

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