Grady-White 270 Islander

The seeds of a boating life are sown early.

- Steve Knauth

Brian Torrance has been on the water for as long as he can remember. “I was on my father’s boat before I could walk,” the 60-year-old sales rep from Prince Frederick, Maryland, says.

That first boat was a 25-foot Lone Star aluminum cruiser, a late 1950s model. “It had twin 35-horsepower Evinrudes — the biggest engines he could find back then, if you can believe it,” Torrance says. “We spent weekends on it. He even took it down the ICW.”

As a teen, Torrance bought himself a 12-foot fishing boat. He later bought a 15-foot Mako center console that he fished for 15 years. The boat he has now — a 2003 Grady-White 270 Islander — might be the best of the bunch. “This is the biggest boat I’ve owned,” Torrance says. “I wanted a boat that could do just about any thing — fishing offshore, cruising, going just about anywhere.”

Torrance bought the walk around eight years ago for $45,000 through Commonwealth Boat Brokers (commonwealthboat brokers.com), which specializes in the sale of repossessed vessels. “I had been looking for a used Grady-White for three or four years,” he says. “It was on the Internet, and my cousin went to see it. He called and told me to look at it, and I did.”

When he first inquired, Torrance was told the boat was in the process of being sold. He says he told Commonwealth to call him if the sale fell through. It did, and he was able to make a deal. “You never know,” he says.