So background on yesterday's posts: in my good friend Robert Lagier's family, boatbuilding and sailing goes back three generations. His dad has built 34 boats and his grandad was a boatbuilder in WWII (big ships in this case), and both were in construction. During their lives they are always building something, usually a house or a boat.
The boats that they do for themselves are 30 to 50 sailboats. Wood, steel, or ferro-cement for material, and never, ever fiberglass. Fiberglass is considered a dilettante for these guys: just wrong. 'Like a floating bathtub' is how they describe the sterile material. But then everything about these guys says that they prefer an older age: hard work, beautful workmanship, self reliance, anti consumers.
Paul, Robert's dad, is also an almond farmer in Ripon (don't forget to pronouce it ăm'ənd), and that's where he builds his boats. They are later hauled to Stockton to be christened.
They are also sailors of course. Robert has single handed his grandad's 1962 wood boat, the Ave Del Mar, to Tahiti. Paul regularly sails his handiwork to Baja and Hawaii, the current vessel being a 40 foot steel boat: Dolce Vita (wife Erlene is Italian-American and very proud of it).
They inspired me to five years of wood boat ownership myself. I owned a 27 foot 1962Herschoff called Sona Maraudh, which while very fun to sail and very beautiful to look at, overwelmed me with work. I was spending all weekend, every weekend to get it ready for the sailing season. Had some amazing times sailing her. I think I need to become a millionaire before getting my next so I can have a crew working on it. Also realized: I just don't have that farmer ethic that the Lagiers display. IE, I'm lazy!
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3 comments:
Joel -
I grew up sailing. One of my dad's friends built a ferro-cemet sailbox in his barn...must've been late 60's early 70's. I remember the wire frame. As I recall it took him 2 full years before the boat hit the water. As a kid I could never figure out how concrete could float ;-)
When I moved out to the bay area in the early 90's I help a couple of friends salvage 1932 Yankee30 off the bottom of Oakland estuary. Spent every weekend, and 2 or 3 nights a week sanding, caulking, replacing dry rot, more sanding, pulling the canvas off the deck and refurbishing the original teak. That boat was a blast...good stories...lot's of fun...and an enourmous butt load of work.
Oh, to be a millionaire eh?
Is this Tom Carpenter? Or this another Tom C?
....carpenter.
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