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Sailing
In 1975 at the age of 53 I
decided to build a boat (I should have acquired enough wisdom by 5this
time to know better). The boat building bug was picked up by my
son Mark when he visited on of his college buddies in San
Francisco. He transferred the bug to another of my sons,
Scott. Together they built a Catamaran. All of this boat
building going on in our home shop began to increase my own boat
building fever until I came down with a full blown case of it. By
this time my tow oldest sons decided to each build their own. Mark
started his first but never got much beyond the lofting of his plans
when a pretty girl decided he should go to college instead, so he could
maybe earn enough to support them. Scott kept his eye on the ball,
or rather the boat, and two years later he tore off the front of the
shop and out popped at 20 footer. This work of boar building art
was patterned after the boat "Trekka" that John Guzwell built
and sailed around the world in.
By this time I had constructed a 12
ft. "catboat". An open boat with the mast stepped in the
bow. It carried 99 square feet of canvas and was a goer if I ever
saw one. This project was completed in one winters spare
time. It was fun to sail, used to take up to Foster reservoir and
up to Big Lake in the Cascades.
By this time the fever had reached
it's zenith, I couldn't wait to build a bigger one. I finally
settled on a Laurent Giles design called Vertue. The Vertue class
boat was patterned after the channel pilot boats of the lat
thirties. Fast and extremely sea worth. It was called a five
tonner. Five thousand pounds of wood and about the same of lead
for the keel. It had standing room, slept four, stove chart table,
sink and a 12 hp inboard diesel.
I finally finished it after 11 years
of trial and toil. Since my son Scott was living in D3eer Harbor
on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands at the time, I hauled it up
there for the final fitout. It performed beautifully and we made
several tri-s around the Islands and up into Queen Charlotte Sound east
of Vancouver Island. I eventually sold the boat. But I still have
the concrete mold for the molding of the keel lead. Anybody that
is interested in building on of this type is welcome to it. A
small piece of advice. If you are even thinking about building a
boat, finda another hobby. It took me fifteen years to cure myself
from this disease, so you would do well to consider my advice! - Larry
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Family
History