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In early 1973 I decided I wanted a big sailboat—and that I wanted to sail off into the sunset, as the old cliché says. I lived on the California coast at that time, and I commenced looking around for a used boat. I soon realized I couldn’t afford anything I wanted.
In early 1985 I leased an “abandoned” property on the south side of Windley Key, in Islamorada, Florida. It had three acres, a ruined fishing camp, and a 100-foot private canal and concrete dock.
In mid-July of 1981, I sailed into New York Harbor in FISHERS HORNPIPE, my first cruising sailboat. I had an interview with David Beggs, in charge of restoration work on the ships in the South Street Seaport Museum, and landed a summer job as a restoration shipwright.
In the early 1990s I leased a large steel industrial building just north of Ft. Pierce, Florida. I had recently split up with my third “wife” in Key West, and moved back to the Ft.
This reproduction 19th/20th Century sprit-rig Core Sound Sailing Skiff was built in 2012, at the
QA17 will be at The Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY’s August 3rd auction with no reser
This was my first retirement project and my first boat build.
