CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Ruffin McNeill has a picture of a boat in his new Virginia office, high atop a bookshelf. If you squint really hard, you can see him standing inside the cockpit.
This is the boat that saved him.
When he bought it several years ago, McNeill had no idea the boat would help change his life. Rather, he offered to take the 37-foot chinook as a favor to his longtime mentor Donnie Duncan, who at the time was battling cancer.
McNeill had never driven a boat before. He had only ridden on one maybe three times.