Hal Gooch, owner of the Buddy Davis 61 Diamond Lady, is an entrepreneur- and he's very good at it. His main business is an Amway products distributorship. Other ventures include marketing, real estate, convenience stores, a furniture business-and the list goes on.

It makes perfect sense that Gooch would own a Buddy Davis. He grew up fishing on the outer banks of North Carolina and has always owned Carolina boats, starting with a 25-foot Grady White. The last boat he owned before his Buddy Davis was a custom 53-footer by Sonny Briggs in Wanchese, also the location of Buddy Davis.

I spent an awful lot of time around Orenon Inlet," says Gooch. I know the captains there and I knew Buddy Davis. Everyone I talked to who ran a Buddy Davis boat was very satisfied." Diamond Lady makes the entire billfishing circuit, from Florida to the Bahamas to Mexico to St. Thomas. Diamond Lady also charters., Gooch took delivery in August 1990.

He added a Pipewelders tower and had a unique rod locker built into the flybridge hardtop. He also rearranged some of the storage area in the staterooms and increased the amount of close space.

Aside from the initial minor storage problems, Gooch couldn't be happier. "I've got 16-92s in Diamond Lady. I cruise at 29 knots at 1700 RPM and top out at 36 knots. At cruising speed, I run through 85-90 gallons per hour. That gives me a range of around 400 miles," he says.

Besides fishing a fair number of billfish tournaments around the circuit, Gooch also likes to kick back and go for grouper and yellowtail. No competition-just some quiet time and a few good meals.

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