By Michael E. Keating •
mkeating@enquirer.com • March 6, 2009
"I live in a house in the off-season. I live in a house in Cincinnati during the season,” says Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo.
But for six weeks during spring training, Arroyo lives aboard his boat, Nasty Hook, moored at Marina Jack in Sarasota Bay, Fla.
Arroyo has lived on the boat during spring training for the past three seasons.
Barefoot, dressed in jeans and a Key West T-shirt, the affable free spirit he sits strumming his guitar in the fading sunlight.
“Being out here at the dock every night, it’s so peaceful. You sit out here and listen to the birds and have dinner as you wind down from the day,” he says.
Why live on a boat?
“It’s a different feel than you would get living anywhere on land,” Arroyo says.
Arroyo eats, sleeps and entertains aboard the Nasty Hook (baseball argot for a good curve ball.) It’s a SeaRay Sundancer 48, technically a sport yacht because it has autopilot capability, but it’s not Trump-size vessel.
Powered by twin 540 Cummins diesel engines and equipped with GPS for navigation, including an autopilot mode, the boat features a lot of high-tech equipment.
“You can drop wavepoints down on the water, using a computer, to make this thing cruise in a continuous circle all night or set a direct line to Key West, and it’ll go straight there,” Arroyo says.
Capt. Tony Acosta, a lifelong friend who grew up with Arroyo in the Florida Keys, “makes this thing go and makes sure we always get back to port,” Arroyo says.
“The best speed is 28 mph but we kinda push it a little to go places a little faster. So, its real cruising speed is 33 mph,” Acosta. says.
When training camp breaks and the Reds come north for the regular season, Arroyo and Acosta will bring the boat to Cincinnati.
“When we get a chance during the regular season, we’ll get 35-40 people on the boat. We’ll run out on the Ohio River near Riverbend and just turn this thing into a club.
“Break out the lights and the smoke machines and they’ll be dancing on the top deck and below,” Arroyo says.
That’s a pretty good pitch.
And what about next year when the Reds move their training camp to Goodyear, Ariz.?
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Arroyo says. “There’s not going to be a boat in the middle of the desert.”
