Birth of a Dream

Almost ready for water

Yep, We did it.

Built a beautiful wooden sailboat, literally from the ground up.

It started with Mark and me, on a cold blustery night in front of a cheerful fireplace, and soon thereafter our third Amigo Tony climbed aboard. We then took over Mark’s garage and had to fabricate a bench to assemble the many

and varied pieces.

We crafted the pieces from plans, templates, trial and error, with a steep learning curve. There was also wood involved, a lot of wood.

Purchased thanks to our summer jobs (which is a story of it’s own).

“Wood, Sweat and Tears” and the equivalent of “Lather, Rinse, Repeat”

We got fabrication lessons how to use a Spokeshave, carving a 20' mast from a 4x4x20 foot Douglas fir beam, also how to wax screws to ease insertion, sail making and grommet fabrication and slides and with track glides from repurposed shelving brackets. Our previous experience with fiberglass paid off. I remember a particular wild ride carrying two 4 foot by 14 foot marine grade plywood sheets on top of my Chevy with two arms and not nearly enough tie down ropes. The car kept trying to fly. Also, we had a lot of help from Tony and Mark’s fathers. My help came from yet another uncle, Jerry the younger. He said keep the trailer from the old Bowman we had refurbished a few years earlier.

Sailing into History

When all was said and done, TA- DAA! “Sailboat”

We rented it a water berth at Dusty’s Landing, took it on a road trip to Michigan, and finally joined a club for like-minded enthusiasts on Turkeyfoot lake. But these are tales of their own, waiting to be told. Please Stay tuned.

Congratulations Amigos on a job well done.

This was a dream realized for us. Tell us yours

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