February 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 19. 70s Memories - The Oh Ohs By Lee S. Wilbur
When I start thinking of and remem- bering and telling friends what I now term the “Golden years” of boatbuilding and the crazy times we had getting bare hulls through the big main shop door, packing the fl oors to every available square foot, then working like hell to get a fi nished product out again and into the water there are those pauses, those memories of the “Uh’ Ohs when something was overlooked, a ques- tion not asked, a situation not realized, or change unaccounted for. In embarrassing honesty the fi rst “whoops” happened on the second boat, “number two” in the old shop on a boat that next door neighbor Roger Pinkham, my fi rst building teacher’s broth- er-in-law had ordered.
Early one Saturday morning, Roger and I were up on the scaffolding (lengths of 2x8 or 2x10 planks on risers, no railings, quite un-OSHAesque) rolling out the last piece of matt and fi berglass cloth on the washboards with the green trim colored resin when owner Russell Lawson opened the side door and walked in. Didn’t say much more than “mornin” as he climbed the ladder and joined us. Stood there quiet- ly looking but for a minute when he said, “I didn’t want “that” color on the washboards. I just wanted it on the trim” Roger and I must have frozen in mid-roll. Could have heard the resin drip in the bucket. I offered to re-paint it, put another layer on, but Rus- sell said he’d think about it and a few days later, thank the lord of fi berglass, came back to say he fi gured he could live with it. Back when I was just getting start- ed, knew absolutely nothing about putting a boat together to fl oat upon
the water,
I would do rudimentary drafting on the kitchen table then take the fi nished draw- ing to Bar Harbor and Ed Jackson, sur- veyor, to be printed on his copy machine. First drawing, I had looked through a boat magazine for pictures, spotted an ad of an Egg Harbor 38’ and really liked the angle of its windshield. 60 degrees. Used that on virtually every powerboat with the excep- tion of th Hunt designed 62’s. I digress. In laying out Danny Fernald’s Newman 36, WINDSONG lobsterboat (1974 and still fi shing it today) number 5, I failed to take into account that all the previous boats ex- cept for number “001”, a sportfi sherman, had been built for medium height owners.
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Danny owned a few more inches in height. Wasn’t long after he started fi shing “Wind- song” that the skill-saw took care of a few inches of overhang on the hauling side and the bruises on Danny’s forehead faded away. Sidebar of fun building for Danny,he and I both held offi ces and were youngest ever elected to the Board of Selectmen in respective towns- Southwest Harbor for me and Cranberry Isles for Danny-we’d swap stories and have a few good laughs when he’d come over to check on progress. In 1976, we built what was to be the
fi rst boat of a three boat trilogy all named BACCALA for a couple who have become dear friends, Jack and Jackie Fiora from Connecticut (grist for another story). BAC- CALA was probably the most well-fi nished yacht type we’d done to that time, although the Fiora’s were far from the “Yachties” crowd. Flybridge, Sportfi sh style, to be used for limited cruising and scuba diving. Get- ting close to launch time and they had come up to check on progress, have some fun, and pick out the interior fabric for cushions, etc. We spent the usual time going through the folders of fabric until they’d agreed, Jack as most men who know little of color combinations and would say nothing if they did, deferred to Jackie’s decisions. Proba- bly I wrote the order. Cushions come back and they were the most horrid huge fl ower pattern anyone could ever imagine. Give a person nightmares to sleep on one. Thought it was strange but gave little thought. Come launch time, we’d had BACCALA out for trial runs. Finally put the cushions aboard, cleaned and neat. Ran well, powered by one of the newer Caterpillar engines. Ev- erything seemed to be going well. Smiles all around. We’re walking up the gangplank fron the fl oat when Jack kind of cleared his throat, says “uh...Lee. Hate to tell you this, but those are the wrong cushions.” Soon re- alized the numbers had been transposed on the order. I’m not sure to this day if I was more relieved to be changing them out or concerned about cost of replacing covers. I’d say it was relief. Very seldom does a fi sherman walk through the door of a boat shop and tell a builder “I’m in no hurry, just fi nish it when you have time.” Andy Johnson was no dif- ferent. Timetable was such, his wouldn’t be fi nished until mid-winter. I mentioned we could slip a slot in the schedule and still have him in the water and fi shing by ear- ly spring. Allowed he’d like to be in earlier
and doing the fi tting out even if the tem- peratures were below freezing. We were pleased to accommodate. This was a time before Hydraulic boat trailers had come on the scene. Still launching down over the rock beach foot of the hill by Hinckley’s through a narrow opening of the old bar- ber shop and a storage building. Doug Gott would supply a half loaded dump truck to haul our homebuilt steel trailers onto the beach well below high tide line, disconnect, and we’d fl oat the boats off head-to. Gener- ally run an anchor out to pull off. We’d got- ten so wrapped up in the fact it was below zero and the problems thereof, none had bothered to consider the snow banks piled high against any beach access. Uh’Oh. Find a way to park the trailer. Disconnect. Send truck back to Doug’s. Pick up a bulldoz- er on a trailer. Come back and now there are two rigs on the narrow snow packed, well-traveled shore road. Wind picking
up. Snow blowing. Cold as bejeezzus. Top it off, Tide is by this time run- ning in. Somewhere in the fi les there’s pictures of REBECCA JANE as she passes through the snow piles and on to a beach fi lled with cakes of ice toward that spring of chasing lobsters. She was also one of the fi rst of the larger lobsterboats with big power engines. The frontier was being
pushed back.
The Uh’Oh’s are comical to look back on, and there were more. But, at the time, when you’re getting started, trying to build a reputation for quality work done on time, any slip-up can be embarrassing and a rea- son for concern. Luckily “the okays out- stripped the oh’oh’s”.
“Magazines and Publications” “Just try a small ad,” Said the “Yacht- ing” advertising salesman, Alex Armen- trout “You don’t need anything bigger right now. About the size of a business card.” I was, to say the least, quite skeptical. Smallest advertisements from the major boatbuilding companies would be quar- ter to half page with full color and all the trimmings. Pictures taken from boats run- ning alongside or with helicopters hovering
Continued on Page 21.
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