Palmer Johnson "Time" to become artificial reef...

Doesn’t seem so long ago I remember it was the darling of the boating magazines when launched. Where does the TIME go?

I spent a week with Seth Atwood in the fall of 1987 while Time had an extended layover at Skull Creek Marina in Hilton Head as she was making her way south from Sturgeon Bay. Mr. Atwood was an incredibly interesting fellow with an incredible life story up till that point, making his fortune in the automobile interior plastics parts vacuum molding manufacturing business. He named his yacht after his beloved Time Museum in Rockford Illinois that had clocks and time pieces along with sun dials from the beginning of civilization keeping time. He certainly had a small twist of eccentricities that would reflect in his impulse to do things like placing a Citroen 2CV up top next to an aluminum tender fabricated as an exact replica / image of the mother ships long and slender hull with the modified clipper bow. (Both a wee bit on the side of worthless function wise) Time started life with 16-cylinder MTU'S and KA ME WA water jets but the propulsion system proved problematic and was replaced with Detroit 149's and shafts a few years after launch. Mr. Atwoods wife Patricia produced the futuristic interior design that was by all means very different but loaded with fresh in ideas. The stories that Seth would tell over dinner of the Palmer Johnson yards Mike Kelsey Sr. and his never wavering grasp of his Malox bottle while building Time are some stories for the ages. It's sad to see this once pedigreed vessel end up this way but at least she'll be enjoyed by divers for many years to come so I know that Seth Atwood would be happy that "Time" goes on.

Interesting. I did not make the connection with the vessel and Seth as I spent many years in rockford and was very familiar with the time museum in the old clock tower hotel.

27° 24' 2870"N, 08° 00' 8988"W at a depth of 160 feet, approximately 10 miles off the St. Lucie Inlet.

https://www.************/news/motor-yacht-time-becomes-artificial-reef