Salty Dog

SALTY DOG

IT'S HARD TO TELL WHO'S HAPPIER WITH THE 19-FOOT SCOUT ROBERT VAN DER BORG BOUGHT TO FISH OFFSHORE — HIM OR HIS DOG PETE.

Pete, waiting for the next catch aboard the Scout.

Robert Van Der Borg bought his 2018 Scout 195 Sport Fish because it can go anywhere a 40-foot boat can go, and for him, that means one thing — more fish.

The Miami Beach resident has been angling since he was a kid, and had been doing it from crowded beaches until September when he took delivery of his new Scout.

“Once lobster season started, shore fishing became difficult because there were a lot of people lobstering on the shores,” says Van Der Borg. “That’s what finally pushed me to say, ‘I need a boat.’ It’s nice, it’s quiet, it’s relaxing. If you’ve got to park here on Miami Beach, if you’re trying to fish, you’ve got a million people around you.”

The added benefit is that his dog Pete loves riding offshore with him — often putting his front paws on the bow railing and facing directly into the wind under full throttle — while they fish blue water for tuna, snapper, and anything else Van Der Borg can find.

“I troll offshore for sailfish and wahoo,” says Van Der Borg. “I can do anything on that boat that anyone on a 30- to 40-foot boat can do.”

Robert Van Der Borg holding up his prized tuna.

His friends are impressed when they hit a big wave because they assumed that on a 19-footer, they’d get drenched.

“The bow of the boat has a shape, you rarely get wet in it,” says Van Der Borg.

As sales manager and buyer for Universal Greens & Flowers, a flower importer that distributes them around the United States, his days start early and end early enough for him to take the boat out after work.

When trying to figure out the kind of boat he wanted, Van Der Borg went to boat shows and did his research before settling on Scout Boats.

“Scout was a very well put-together boat,” says Van Der Borg. “The finish was nice, it’s a very beautiful boat. Everything is finished, even the underside of the compartments. It’s more of a classic looking center console.”

After deciding on the brand, he reached out to Rahim Nahim at MarineMax Miami.

“The first boat we had as a kid was a Sea Ray, and Dad actually bought it at MarineMax up in Connecticut — so that’s

why I used MarineMax,” says Van Der Borg. “I’d had a good past experience with them. I knew them before and I knew they were good to work with.”

He was still somewhat torn between the 195 Sport Fish or the 21-footer, but was leaning toward the 195, says Nahim. After talking it through, they determined that was the boat for him.

Finding the sought-after Scout model wasn’t easy; the first one Nahim found at MarineMax in Charleston, SC, sold just before he could stake his claim, so he continued the search until he located one at another Florida MarineMax.

“We’ve taken care of him,” says Nahim. “He’s been happy on the service side and performance side. When a boat has good karma, and is good on the fishing side — luckily he caught the first time he went out — it’s a good thing. So he’s been lucky, and the boat’s been lucky.”

In an area filled with boutique marinas charging a premium catering to yachts, it was a challenge to find dry storage space somewhere affordable.

“I got him a spot at North Beach Marina next door, because that’s another hard part in this area — getting real estate to put a boat in,” says Nahim. “Because we’re MarineMax, they will help us and make space for us where they can. Customers can’t buy a boat if they’ve got nowhere to put it. They could wait a year. The marina next door is priced well, so he uses the boat a lot; they splash the boat for him whenever he wants.”

The whole process was simple from Van Der Borg’s perspective.

“That was really it,” says Van Der Borg. “We did a lot by email, he was very knowledgeable. Estephanie Herrera who set up all the financing was very knowledgeable. All I had to do was come in and sign.”

Now Nahim, who has become friends with Van Der Borg, loves seeing the pictures he posts of himself, his dog, and the fish they catch out on the boat.

“He recently posted a nice picture of a big sail,” says Nahim. “He has some pretty cool pictures of all the fish he’s caught off Miami. He goes in blue water with the 19. It’s an amazing-riding boat; nice flair and extremely dry. He’s at a point in his life where he said, ‘You know what? I’ve just gotta go fishing.’”