Exposure: Boat of Glass

**Knit Wits! Not you … She’s the first fiberglass boat over 40 feet. And she’s still got it, too.**

Photo by Tom Spencer

How do you best describe the amount of fiberglass in all the boats at the most recent Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show … in miles, tons, gallons, acres? However you slice it, it’s almost unfathomable. Sitting, partially obstructed behind the Hatteras display was a simple 41-footer that reminds us that the fiberglass boat was a concept met with outright skepticism just 63 years ago. Sporting fresh new teal paint, restored from the stringers up, Knit Wits was the first fiberglass boat of its size. I often use the line, “if only this boat could talk, what stories she could tell.” Sitting on the gunwale, I instead thought to myself, if only the other boats at the show could talk—from trailerable center consoles to super yachts—what would they have to say about Knit Wits? I think they’d probably just say, “thank you.”