Always Something to Look Forward to in their Valhalla V-41
Remarkably, Dan Clarkson never went boating in his youth, and recalls that he bought his first boat (a small Wellcraft) when moving his family into their waterfront home in the early 2000s. He then became a partial owner in a number of vessels, including a 33’ Donzi and a 58’ Viking with his partners. But he never developed a deep or daily desire to go boating until his kids began showing an interest in fishing and running the family boat.
Clarkson is CEO of a highly successful marketing company which counts Viking Yachts among their distinguished roster of branded merchandise customers. Through the years, the Clarksons went through a series of runabouts and center consoles, including a large Jupiter. He recalls a day at work when he first overheard one of his salespeople and close friends, Tuffy Samuels, raving about Viking’s new center console brand, Valhalla Boatworks, “That was how I first found out about Valhalla… through Tuffy.”
Turns out Tuffy also went way back with the Halls, the founding family of Bluewater Yacht Sales, and the local Viking/Valhalla dealer. After enough ear ringing from Tuffy, and enthusiasm from his children, Clarkson was eventually on the hook and reeling in a new Valhalla V-41, with Bluewater’s Connor Hall overseeing the process.
Learning What You’ve Got
“My daughter was at college in Philadelphia, so I got to go visit her and we went to New Jersey together to see the hull under construction. She is really into boats, which is great. We toured both the Valhalla and Viking factories with Earle and Connor. Tuffy was there with us too,” he says of his late friend.
“I’ve bought a lot of things in my life, and have been very fortunate. Typically, when you buy something new—like a watch, car, game, whatever—it’s like, ‘alright, cool.’” Then the novelty and interest fades away, he explains.
“Every day though, I enjoy this boat more and more. It’s the best thing I’ve ever purchased!”
Clarkson named their V-41 Altrove, which he explains is Italian for “somewhere else” or elsewhere. “When I’m on the boat, I forget about everything else, and have a nice calm, great experience.” It’s plain to see why he might be enjoying it so darn much, having taken the boat straight to the stunning natural resources of the Exumas chain of islands in the Bahamas.
There he and his family have thoroughly fished, dived and explored the nearby waters and islands while overseeing a house they have under construction. “That’s how I talked my wife into it, that we needed this boat for the Bahamas,” he confides. Clearly he was right, but it’s a win for the whole family.
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“The Seakeeper is genius,” he reports. “It changes the whole world, and now I’d never get on a boat without one!” He recounts Spring Break with their three children and his father, who had just turned 75, and never really spent time on a boat, “We didn’t have the Seakeeper on and at one point I looked over at him and knew we better turn it on! I told him, ‘give it another 15 minutes, Dad,’ and that was that.”
After keeping the boat in the Exumas for four months, it was back to Safe Harbor Bluewater for a check-in and now Altrove and the Clarkson family are ready for the summer fishing season closer to home in Virginia Beach. With an amazing vehicle like the V-41 at their fingertips, you can bet they’ll always be dreaming of places elsewhere and making plans to go enjoy them!
