Your first two years

I've run from Long Island to Block Is. more times than I can count. It's an easy run. Keep Long Island's south shore off your left shoulder and go. When the land on your left disappears Block Is. appears in front of you. Simple.
In a doctor's office one day I was reading a small boat magazine. A fellow had written a story about his second time doing the trip. It sounded like he was describing the voyages of Columbus. I almost lost it as he talked about the navigation aids that were no longer in the water on this second trip. Ballons that people release on the beach with weddings and such tend to float about 1-2 miles off shore before falling into the water. He was looking to navigate by them, and I guess there were no parties that week. SO he was in a panic.
Well, my first thought was 'What an idiot'. Then I thought way back to my early days and how little I knew. That thought humbled me, and made me a much better and more patient teacher.

While it's been a while since last posting to this Forum, the Publisher recently encouraged me to re-connect. In running down the list of topics, Olderboater's post above piqued my interest. He wins the toaster.

So, here's my story:

Just graduated with an Engineering degree in 1977 and decided to forgo a career with a Fortune 100 firm in favor of ...a boat manufacturer?! Well, a famous one in Miami fairly close to home. A good move, in retrospect, since after about a year, there grew a sneaking suspicion that engineering was not my cup of tea, and that those folks down at the other end of the hall--the Sales Department--were having a lot more fun. Having sneakily wormed my way in (I began to hang out with that bunch at their local watering hole after hours) and making the move, the learning curve went up like a roman candle. Since there was a small fleet of Company Boats and a need for a Boat Maven, I was instructed how to properly pass a dockline around a cleat. No novice, our family had boats for many years; I just never learned the proper ways of Things Nautical. How to un-dock a boat. How to dock one gently, just kissing the dolphins..it's all in the clutches...gas boats, diesel boats, how Capitol gears reacted differently from the Twin Disc brand.
People skills. How to set up a boat show in a strange city and how much to grease the (New York) unions. How to write and give a compelling speech at a Dealer Meeting in front of hundreds of people, some of whom are selling Brand V or H as well as B--this from a (previously) shy individual. Lots of travel. How long a bottle of Tabasco will last against how many flights of airline food. Marlin fishing off the Big Island and doing the tournament circuit legs off Walkers and Green Turtle." Busman's holiday" deliveries down Exuma Sound, through the Mona Passage, Puerta Plata, Willemstad, Curacao. There were mega-bucks guys who were envious when I casually mentioned these plans.

An interesting conumdrum: working for a hot-stuff boat company is an ego builder, yet there is the occasional need to eat an excrement sandwich from time to time with various not-so-savory clients, but you know in your gut that that's part of the deal. You car dealers wrote the book, dint'cha.

Too bad for the new kids recently coming into the business: back in the '70s-'80s, there was the occasional beery lunch group (the Falcon over by the river and 27th Ave.) where even the bosses showed up, 'cuz they were cool, and we were all part of the same passionate team, to build and sell and promote the best boats on the planet. The work got done.

A quick road to riches? Not hardly. A life you would not change for anything? Oh, hell yeah.

I have always loved the water. Learned to swim at 4 in a class where the next youngest was 9... my final test I even jumped off the 33 foot high platform to start it.

I do not know when the boating bug took hold. But I suppose it was my grandfather a retired Master mariner as he had a large boat for the day. So of course, just like his hunting, I took up these interests. He was a more practical man than I was a child but I was studious and read everything I could. My mother was supportive of pretty much anything we were interested in a children. My father was not, nor was grandfather as he little patience for children. So in this environment I dreamed of my own boat and read every boat building book and every sailing story in the library by time I was 10 years.

I decided at that time to build my own boat... and of course did my own design as I knew I was not able to build steam bent ribs and the like. I tried but was not real successful at bending (too little time and not hot enough). So with my lawn mowing, painting and odd job money, and support of mom, I started the boat in the basement. The design was a simple plywood rib and planked skiff using a shallow vee to the hull... with an inboard motor... salvaged form a lawn mower for the house hold that was not working well and had been replaced. The garage was in the house originally in the basement so the I had ready old fashioned garage door access in and out. The other advantage was I moved into the room off the main basement area, and my workshop was already down there... with my great grandfathers hobby cabinet making tools available. I earned every piece of wood and screw used. As usual my father was against it and would say 'he will never finish it'. My grandfather never took notice or provided any advice.

I suppose it took most of a year and I learned to use a bit and brace to turn the hundreds of screws in! As I neared completion my father, as he often did though up a little road block. He had the garage doors removed and an outside stairwell put in with a 90 degree turn out the door. My father was extremely passive aggressive. This problem was not my immediate problem but getting the motor mounted the shaft made and aligned. That was hugely challenging, and I ended up mounting the motor after I had drill and installed the shaft tube... a piece of galvanized pipe with caps on each end... the caps I drilled out a little larger than the shaft. The alignment was difficult because I had not figured out how to accurately drill the shaft hole though the keel... so that was done with a hand bit and brace with a drill extension... hard challenging job. I used epoxy to glue the tube to the keel and oakum for stuffing. Later getting the shaft stuffed enough and not too much was a big deal too.

The engine was aligned by trial and error until it seemed well... basically planing down the left high motor mounts made out of wood... took a long time of little by little. Why the that lawn mower as scrapped was it would never start for my father or the hired man... but it always started for me. But I cheated by using a propane torch removing the burner and running a rubber line into the carburetors air cleaner. It always ran well on this jury rigged outfit, started first pull too, that I had 'invented'. I used that mower for some time until dad caught on to the high usage of propane cylinders and stopped that by buying a new mower. Mom supported buying the cylinders as she thought it was creative! This same rig up was my boat motor setup. Mom supplied a propeller she had ordered somewhere but it needed a hole drill and a keyway filed... hard huge jobs for me and it was not the best fit on the shaft but workable. Oh, the shaft... my cousin in England (he was twenty five years older than me) provided that with the sleeve to adapt to the motor shaft as he had some kind of auto repair restoration business. But it cost me the material, shipping an a little extra about 10 dollars US... which scraping and painting Mrs. Robertson's back porch floor paid for. The making of the shaft and getting it delivered was about 3 months as I remember... seemed forever. The rudder was simply hung outside as I determined it was too complicated to do one with cables and a wheel... under the keel.

Sealing the boat was basically using quarter round planed to fit the inside joints... and white lead window putty. Upon finishing enough to take out an try at the nearby pond was delayed due to dad's home improvement project with the door and stairs. I decide to cut the boat crosswise in two and bolt together for assembly, and this would allow easier transport. How I did this was by putting a sold pice of 1/2 inch plywood for a bulkhead and then removing a sawn rib just forward of it. Once that bulkhead was in place, I removed the rib and installed a second bulkhead spaced the thickness of frozen treat sticks off the first to allow a saw kerf. Both bulkhead were sealed to the hull skins and the bolt holes drill for the assembly - disassembly bolts. Well as usual that was not enough space for even the smallest hand saw I had to work. So I used a hacksaw blade and a hand vice to saw the thing in two... took all one afternoon.

However, to get the thing outside required a lot of struggle as even divided in half it was heavy... and the motor ended up being dismounted to accomplish it.

It floated and had some leakage which was very hard to seal up... and was a reoccurring problem in use. I suppose it was in use a couple months total before mother bought a real boat for a present for use kids to use. And, thereafter it was relegated to no use. Eventually, dad broke it up and scraped it a few years later. All in all the project was I suppose a year and a half. Have not thought on that for many years....