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Gary
Melton’s idea was simple: Design and build a boat that would address
the needs of America’s rapidly aging population. Many in this group
have enjoyed a lifetime of boating and don’t want to give it up
just because they’re getting older. However, living longer often means the onset of a variety of
health problems that can make spending time aboard a conventional boat
problematic. “This group will have a wide range of mobility limitations,
ranging from those associated with arthritis to those demanding the use
of walkers, electric scooters, and wheelchairs,” observes Melton.
“Additionally, other individuals will face challenges from maladies
like impaired vision.”
Melton
speaks with some authority on this subject. A serious automobile accident
in 1981 left him paralyzed from the waist down and dependent on a wheelchair
for mobility. Shortly thereafter he began to design and build different
types of equipment to enhance the quality of his life and the lives of
others like him. Over the past 20 years Melton has been widely recognized
for his work in adapting devices such as riding lawn mowers, ATVs, farm
tractors, RVs, homes, and boats. He’s built automobiles for everyday
transportation and vehicles for public transportation, all designed for
the handicapped. He even built and raced a four-wheel-drive motocross
truck with hand controls and other features that enabled him to compete
with able-bodied racers for five years. However, boating was always his
passion, and he designed two other barrier-free boats prior to his latest
project. In fact, in a 1997 study entitled Barrier-Free Access to Boats,
Boating, and Fishing prepared for pending Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) regulations, professor Douglas Coughenower of the University
of Alaska Fairbanks credited Melton with building “one of the most
handicapped-accessible vessels in the United States.”
For
this project Melton says, “I wanted to produce a hybrid, if you
will, with the utility, comfort, and spaciousness of a houseboat and the
length, lines, amenities, and ambiance of a modern motoryacht.”
Construction would take advantage of space-age technology and new lightweight
materials, and the vessel would not only be affordable to purchase but
fuel-miserly and have a floor plan accessible to all, including the mobility-impaired,
without being blatantly obvious. It would be designed primarily for traveling
the Intracoastal Waterway and shallow waters between New England and Miami
with the ability to be home-ported at cities in between.
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