The end of a great chapter

Mid 1987 I was raising three kids as a single parent and had a fourth part-time. My business was doing okay(40% industrial repair & fabrication, 60% marine repair & fabrication ) and I was doing everything from electrical repair to major hull modifications. I had been studying composite construction and boat design as long as I could remember and found myself with enough time on my hands to build a prototype of a design I had been working on.
My days were an interesting mix of parenting and running a business, my nights were dedicated to my first boat build ( for a boat of any size) and a little bit of sleeping.
Spring 1988 I launched my prototype " 24 commuter " and in the following eight years my kids and I had more fun than should be legal. We ate more dinners on the beach than I can remember, spent hundreds of nights in hundreds of different coves, we went everywhere and did everything. Friends that went along would say that I could pack a weeks worth of boating into a weekend. Between the two main engines that I ran on it ( first at 135 hr Merc then a 175 hp Mariner) I logged over 3500 hours.
I can't imagine a boat owner working harder at abusing a boat then I did ( and I've worked on boats whose skippers were good at it), the biggest waves I could find ( I hurt my kidneys several times), ice so thick I could get on top of it, and more beach landings then you can imagine. Those late 80s early 90s two strokes like to run and I was all about running them, the 175 got me to 65 mph and I ran it there a lot.
Spring 94 I launched my first boat built on contract, a 36' x 9' based on what I had learned with the prototype. I've done them in several different sizes ( all have been successful and well mannered) and built a mold for a "26 commuter" ( 26'10"x7' ).
The prototype has been sitting in the bushes since 1996 ( I can do better so I'm not going to spend any more money on another repower) and we just had a citywide cleanup where most anything could be dumped free at the transfer station...

Please excuse me I'm having trouble getting my attachments to work, but I'm on it ...
Got it, next two posts. Thank you, Gerald

 

Another attempt to post photos for the " end of a great chapter"

 

Okay, I got it right, so here's some more.

 

Are you trying to make everyone cry?

Sorry to see her go, enjoy your memories, she was a fine ship.

Here is me when they took my car/truck of 19 years away. I purchased it new when my wife and I were first dating, it was symbolic.

 

Gerald, great story mate and your children are fortunate to have a boat and outdoor crazy father!

 

Nice story thanks!
And how did you manage to transport the sofa on her thats shown in the penultimate pic. ?

 

You should have sunk her and made a artificial reef or fish hiding place... Now time to start working on that bigger boat to sail around the world....

 

Love the story and photos in the second post, but the pictures of her being destroyed are really sad

 

that was a great looking boat
the lines and the proportions
all well done
you might have given her to someone rather than broken her up
and well made to
looks like she didnt go down without a fight
so whats next
are you done with boating
or thinking of something newer
B

 

"Always look on the bright side of life"......

You were a great inspiration to ya kids, they may not be boating now, but the memories of all those good times will not be forgotten, and it is these hard time ahead for us all that good times are nice to reflect back on, here's to more good times for us all to reflect on in the future.

All the best mate.

 

My children who are now grown and continued to boat and although I don't spend as much time on the water as I'd like to, I get out on a number of different boats, I occasionally Captain a small freight boat on a US mail delivery run around the island, I built a prototype commuter canoe ( 28' x 4' ) that I gave to my son but can still use occasionally, I have friends that invite me aboard, and I'm a designated captain on a city utility boat that we use for search and rescue.
I've attached a few photos of a " 26 Commuter" , the hull is from a mold I built but the cabin is one of, mine will have a different cabin. I'll post a few photos of other " Commuter" boats later tonight.

 

A few other Commuter Boat projects, the first is a 36' x 9' that was designed for pot shrimp fishing and sixpack chartering. When it was a few years old it came in for a 4 foot extension, a re-power with a yanmar diesel/ Arnesen Drive, and a hinged upper transom. After changing hands and a few more thousand hours ( and some serious abuse), another repower and a few more thousand hours, it came in for yet another repower and a conversion to accommodate light freight and US mail. With that conversion the well-deck was covered and a freight room was added aft of the pilot house.

 

And now a few photos of a 32', again with an Arneson and another hinge upper transom.

 

And a prototype 28 commuter canoe.