Magical Mel-O-Dee

The story of a family's mission to restore an heirloom, thanks to the love of history, the Outer Banks, and a boatbuilding legacy

- Cameron J. Rhodes

The thick, velvety summer-night sky blanketed the shores of the Outer Banks as the hum of a single diesel engine sounded across Oregon Inlet. The vessel's navigation lights broke the darkness as it headed toward the Gulf Stream, like a welcomed ghost from the past. It was just after 3 a.m., and the 2022 Alice Kelly Memorial Ladies Only Billfish Tournament in Manteo, North Carolina, was officially underway. Although most of the other competitors remained asleep, the glow of green and red from Mel-O-Dee was already fading into the horizon.

The boat, a relic from the earliest days of North Carolina's boatbuilding trade, was en route to a destination shed visited countless times before. Capt. Buddy Callaway felt a complex churn of mixed emotions as he and his crew set out for the Gulf Stream that morning. Nerves are typical for any tournament competitor, but amid those expected inklings of excitement and anxiety, Callaway was also warmly thinking of his late grandfather, Buddy "BC" Cannady.

COLLECTIVE HISTORY REVEALED

The winter months could be unspeakably cold on the Outer Banks in the 1960s. During the chill of the offseason, many fishermen took to building boats in open shops. Cracked and leathered hands are proof of hardy men. North Carolina's fishing fleet had plenty of them, and Cannady was certainly one of those characters. In his lifetime, the renowned charter captain built more than 100 boats-a mix of custom sport-fishers and skiffs of various lengths and uses which still proudly carry his name.