TINA COMES HOME
FARLEY BOAT, PERHAPS 70 YEARS OLD, RETURNS TO PORT ARANSAS AFTER YEARS AND MILES
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

The tale of Tina Above, from left, boat rescuers Marc Teller, John Studeman, Ned Teller, Tom Teller and Barney Farley pose with the Tina (renamed the Daiphi) in the South Jetty parking lot on their way to deliver her 'back home.' Top right, a Farley boat similar to the Tina; below that, some of the crew look over the Tina at the boat barn in Rockport; above right, they look over plans and brochures with boat rebuilder Ron Blue, center; below right, Barney Farley looks over the Tina's gunwale at the cabin and steering wheel; bottom, another Farley boat of years past.

Tina is home again - this time, to stay.

The wandering Farley boat, one of a very few remaining vessels built by the legendary Port Aransas boatbuilding family, returned here on Saturday, May 26 after a journey to Buda, Bastrop and Rockport and a stay of at least 30 years shut up in a boat barn.

As near as Keith Farley, one of those involved in returning the boat here, can figure out, the Tina is about 70 years old - "At least 60 years, that we know of, and I really think she's older," Farley said.

Jim Farley built the boat at his place on White Street for Sam Cone, a wealthy man who liked to fish Port Aransas waters. Tina was named after Cone's wife.

The couple had a falling-out, however, and eventually divorced (and stories vary on just why), and Cone put the Tina in storage in a boat barn at Avenue B and Trojan Street, an area now occupied by homes.

It wasn't until a half-century later that Port Aransan Rick Pratt found the boat and bought her. With the help of an old-time boatman, Keith Farley said, Pratt got the old boat's engine running "for the first time in 50 years."

Eventually, Pratt sold the boat to David Loese, who, according to Pratt, owned a woodworking shop in Buda and planned to restore the Tina.

That didn't work out, however, so Loese sold the Tina to his brother Steve, who lived in Bastrop.

Steve Loese eventually sold her to San Antonio attorney Jeff Morehouse, who berthed the boat in Rockport and set boat restorer Ron Blue to work putting the boat back in shape.

It was in Rockport that Keith Farley found the Tina - by this time renamed the Daiphi, out of Key Allegro.

"I called Ned (Teller) and said, 'I've found a Farley boat'," Farley said.

"He told me, 'Well, I'd sure like to look at it,' and by then I knew he was hooked."

Teller eventually bought the boat from Morehouse and he, along with Keith and Barney Farley, John Studeman and Thomas Teller put the Tina on a trailer and trucked her from Rockport to Port Aransas, where she'll remain "until we get her back in the water," Keith Farley said.

Tina, in the meantime, will rest not far from the location where she was originally built.

Farley said there are at present no plans to donate the boat as a memoriam to the family of boatbuilders that lived in Port Aransas years ago, though he didn't rule that out for the future.

"We want to get her back in the water at least once," he said.

Farley said when they got the boat to Port Aransas, they located a bouquet of flowers and put it in the bow of the boat in imitation of the Port Aransas Garden Club concrete "Farley boat" planters that have been used as a fundraiser for the organization.

"Now there," Farley said, "there's a real Farley boat planter."