By Frank O'Neil, Chief Commercial Officer
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In 1961, a 6-year-old Vinny Ambrosanio left Naples, Italy, with his family. They traveled to New York City by steamship then to Los Angeles by train.
While his parents baked genuine Pizza Napoletana at their restaurant, Vinny would ride his bike down to the Santa Monica Pier to catch sand crabs, which he would sell to surf anglers for bait, then use that money to purchase passage on a half-day charter for yellowtail and halibut.
That fishing obsession and business sense didn’t abate through careers in restaurants, office supply sales, or mortgage brokerage. Upon retirement, Vinny purchased the platform to do it right: a 41-foot Lindell Yacht appointed with center-deck bait station, Searchlight sonar unit, tuna tower, and a pair of white Mercury Verado 600-horsepower V12 outboards.
From his prime slip in the Dana Point Marina, just a few minutes down the road from his home in San Juan Capistrano, Vinny runs near and far with a rotating cast of regular crew, friends, kids, and grandkids. But it wasn’t the Dana Point kelp beds that led him to commission such a battleship.
San Clemente Island is a nearly 60-mile run from the mainland moorage across notoriously heavy current. When the conditions are right, Vinny can now be there with baits in the water in under two hours—a ride that used to take him most of the day in boats past. Four fewer hours at the helm are four more on deck, working the rocks and rips for calico bass, rockfish, halibut, and yellowtail. Of course, like any Southern California salt angler worthy of the title, he’s out searching for Pacific bluefin tuna when they’re on the grounds.
The appropriately named fishing vessel “Deep Color” is an allusion to those flashes of yellow and purple and silver you get as a fish barely begins to come into view. Capt. Vinny and his crewmen Matt and Joey pulled out their early-season tricks for our video crew this spring to bring some brilliant fishes into that angle.
I hope you enjoy our latest film, Lindell Yachts Captains Club featuring Vinny Ambrosanio. Please let me know what you think—and what custom modifications inspire for you.
Happy New Year from Lindell Yachts,
Frank O’Neil
