The Raven and I: Confessions of a Wooden Boat Lover

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

A man and his boat is a lot like a boy and his dog or a teenager and his
first car. He revels in its good points and loves it for its
personality. And the Raven is a boat with personality. Not the
personality most people would find tolerable, but to Green it is
beautiful. A mistress, after all, is not a wife.

The Raven is a 1958 mahogany cruiser that had seen better days and
learned naughty ways by the time Green acquired her. This book is an
account of his years with her on Georgian Bay, the Trent Waterway lock
system (in Ontario), and Lake Champlain (upper New York state). While
the Raven is the central character is this odyssey, there’s a
supporting cast of friends and waterfront denizens, each thoroughly
off-the-wall. The result is the routine made hilarious, the should-be
straightforward made into a circus of mishaps.

Green’s style is vivid, well salted with old-boys’ stories, lightly
peppered with off-color language, and revved up by his ability to find
the humor in bad luck, all the while maintaining his stance of
straightman innocence.

Anyone interested in boating on inland waters will find this a good
read. Anyone drawn to the beautiful classic wooden boats will love it.
And for anyone who has ever experienced a Century Raven, well, lust
comes to mind as the operative word.