Paintwork Declares The Ego Has Landed
The Age
Wednesday January 12, 2000
On the second-last day of 1999, John McCabe completed a ``mean machine" trifecta.
By day, the 29-year-old truck driver rides an imposing Kenworth rig. At night, he cruises around town in a red HJ ute. And, on holiday, he powers across Lake Eildon in his new baby, a 1993 Hallett Executive speedboat called Talon.
With burnt-orange metal-fleck paintwork, a 350 Chevrolet V8 engine purring on the back, and an eagle emblazoned across the front, Mr McCabe's new $14,000 toy is hard to miss. That's just the way he likes it.
``It's an image thing," he grins. ``You look good in it. It makes you feel good. It's a bit of an ego trip."
Inside, the boat looks, and works, pretty much like a car. It has brown-and-beige velour upholstery (treated to protect from splashes), an accelerator pedal and a sports steering wheel. All it needs to be a car is a set of wheels and a stereo.
Mr McCabe plans to install a stereo, even though he admits you'd struggle to hear it over the roar of the engine. He'll give the wheels a miss.
Yet the question of wheels is hard to dismiss. Perhaps the only way to get a fix on his boat's personality is to imagine it with wheels and work out what sort of car it would be.
The paintwork steers us straight towards a Sandman panel van, circa 1975, replete with air-brushed artwork.
But the Sandman comes with overtones too lewd for Mr McCabe's boat, and it is nowhere near as flashy or fast - Talon can do up to 48 knots.
Perhaps it is more like an open-top Cadillac cruiser. That's closer, because, like the Cadillac, Mr McCabe's boat is sleek, open and powerful.
But Talon also has a tiny turning circle, which makes it the king of doughnuts on the lake. For doughnuts, you can't go past a Holden Monaro, but what self-respecting Monaro owner doesn't have a stereo?
Perhaps, in the end, an aquatic metaphor is the best way to capture Mr McCabe's pride and joy. As corny as it may sound, it'd be hard to go past the ``love boat".
The day after he bought Talon, Mr McCabe proposed to his girlfriend. Nicole Grosser, 27, is a keen water-skier who works at the Eildon Caravan Park. She said yes.
© 2000 The Age
