concentrate on his second business and his family.

An advertisement for the sale of the MV Bermuda Longtail by tender appeared in last Friday's edition of The Royal Gazette .

The boat's owner, holding company Yoshi Corporation president David Durham, said he had received a number of inquiries about the 65-foot-catamaran and had advertised the vessel to test the market further.

"I have been hearing from people who are interested in buying the boat,'' he said, "and I wanted to field the market to see who else was interested.

"There are two teams looking at purchasing it right now and anybody else out there who is interested in it needs to let me know.'' Tenders are to be submitted to the company by March 10 and viewing appointments can be arranged.

"This is a good opportunity for a person who wants to get into this field,'' noted Mr. Durham, "as the business is ready made.

"For the year 2000, bookings are probably the best they have ever been with the Tall Ships coming in along with the cruise ship work we have lined up.'' Mr. Durham pointed to the Longtail's large capacity as its main drawing card, especially for the cruise ships which will be operating out of multiple ports in Bermuda this summer.

"The ships doing the dual port concept this summer need to be able to move people, lots of people, day and night.'' The vessel is being sold along with Mr. Durham's tour boat business as a going concern because the father-of-three wants to focus more of his energies on his construction company Building Blocks and his family. "One person can only do so much,'' he said.

Mr. Durham has a five year old son, an older daughter in the UK and a second son who works alongside him in construction.

"It feels like I have always worked in seasonal businesses,'' he said. "So in the summer when other people were taking family vacations, I was at work.

Now I've got a five year old and I don't want to lose him.'' Tour boat up for sale Building Blocks has given him the avenue out of the tourist-orientated field.

"The construction business is going really well,'' he said of the five-year-old firm which specialises in crane services amongst other work.

The company has been busy at the Bermuda Electric Light Company site in Pembroke where it is helping to install the utility firm's new engines as part of a multi-million dollar project.

So busy, in fact, that Mr. Durham has had the skipper of the Longtail , Captain Steven (Cooky) Brown, working on the construction site with him.

"Cooky should have been working on the boat getting it ready for the summer,'' he noted, "but I need him helping me out at Belco. I can't afford to let him go over to the boat.'' After the Belco job winds up, there are a couple of other large projects lined up and a name change for the company to Ground Force, said Mr. Durham.

He is planning to bring in more specialist equipment in the future to join the two cranes including a state of the art tractor trailer next month.

"There's nothing like it on the Island,'' he said. "It is custom built and is something Bermuda has needed for a long time.'' Along with the specialised equipment will come specialised staff, he added, as the demand for them on local construction sites was growing.

"This will help us come in to a job and get it done much quicker,'' he stressed.

Up for sail: The MV Bermuda Longtail which is to be sold by tender