Man redoes pontoon boat as his own floating ‘tiki bar’
A trip on Ernie LONDON —
Sparks’ boat can transport visitors from Choctaw Lake to “Gilligan’s Island.”
Choctaw Lake — a private community of 885 houses about 7 miles north of London in Madison County — boasts tree-lined streets, a diverse mix of homes and a series of lakeside coves with docks housing residents’ boats.
Moored in Sparks’ backyard, however, is a Polynesia-inspired “tiki bar,” a floating craft that would certainly constitute an upgrade for Gilligan, the Skipper and the rest of the stranded oldtime TV gang.
In the spring, Sparks — owner of Ernie’s Pharmacy in London, where he is also the pharmacist — began to transform his 30-year-old pontoon boat, complete with tiki torches and two fake parrots.
The finished craft, which made its lake debut on Independence Day, hasn’t gone unnoticed — or unappreciated — by his neighbors, Sparks said.
“I’ve not heard one bad thing other than a few people who have said, ’You know, we’re wondering when it’s going to catch on fire from the tiki torches. I just said, ‘Well, it came with a bucket of water.’”
Sparks, a native of Columbus’ West Side, spent much of his youth at the 285-acre Choctaw Lake. After his family moved there when he was 10, he developed an affinity for all things aquatic.
“I put myself through pharmacy school working on boats,” said Sparks, 60.
The 1982 graduate of Ohio State University returned in 1988 to the lake, where he shared a home with his wife, Libby, a nurse practitioner, and son, Nick, a recent graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans.
He lost his wife to cervical cancer in May 2017.
For three decades, Sparks said, the family pontoon boat had been a trusty friend.
“It’s been through three motors,” he said. “It was floatable and drivable but best looked at at night, when it was dark.”
So, in May, he began the renovation, which was inspired by friend Deb Friece, a nurse at Hospice of Dayton whose farm outside Springfield boasts a landbased tiki bar.
“Being a hospice nurse, you come to realize pretty quickly that every day is a gift,” Friece said. “You need to spend time with things that make you happy, and, for me, the tiki bar does that.”
As a first step, Sparks — assisted by Matt Brown and Nick Martin, maintenance men who work on commercial properties owned by Sparks — stripped the pontoon to its aluminum frame and deck floor. Then they added a wooden frame to allow for easy application of bamboo and grass.
The boat features an enclosed space, somewhat resembling a hut, that houses the steering wheel and controls and an open area featuring an umbrella-covered table, chairs and a cooler. A ladder leads guests to the roof, where deck chairs can be found.
Sparks shopped at Dwyer Bros., a hardware store in London, for basic supplies.
“He’s a creative person,” store owner T.J. Dwyer said. “He has some great ideas.”
From online retailers, Sparks ordered tiki torches, bamboo and thatched grass. Other modern amenities include a Bluetooth radio and a converter that changes the boat’s electrical current into AC so that visitors can operate a blender.
“We ordered enough stuff so that if something falls off, we can put it right back on,” said Sparks, who estimates that he spent less than $5,000 on materials.
Personal touches include a life ring that reads “SS Friki Tiki” — not to mention the artificial parrots.
“One repeats anything it says, and the other one says pretty foul things,” Sparks said. “We keep it turned off until enough people have alcohol, and then they don’t care what it says.”
His next-door neighbor, Amy Walker, witnessed the pontoon’s transformation, calling it “crazy, just watching it come together.”
The boat took its maiden voyage in June, during an 85th birthday celebration of Sparks’ mother. Two days later, it was the site of a goingaway party for the Rev. Mark Ghiloni, a priest and pharmacy customer who had been transferred from London to Johnstown.
“He wanted to take me out on this boat,” said Ghiloni, now pastor at the Church of the Ascension in Johnstown. “I had been on it once before, but not since he did all this decorating . ... I’ve never seen one like this except on ‘Gilligan’s Island.’”
In subsequent weeks, the boat has continued to attract attention, even eliciting admiration from a patrol boat.
“I didn’t have stickers that showed it was registered on the water,” said Sparks, thinking that he might ticket him for the oversight. “The patrolman said, ‘I just want to take a picture of the boat.’”
Choctaw Lake property manager Mike Casimir praised the boat’s binding effect on the community.
“Anytime you get some neighbors to have some positive feedback toward each other ... is fun,” Casimir said. “It definitely helps for that.”
Sparks anticipates using the revamped boat more often than the old pontoon.
“The novelty’s not worn off yet,” he said.
And he might soon face some neighborly competition.
“I think it gives everybody the idea of decorating their boats,” Walker said. “You can turn something old into something new again.”