I Built A Boat!

From the Desk Of Greg Dorow …

We’ve just had the busiest, craziest, boat selling season I can ever remember and I am just now able to poke my head above water and take a breath. As we begin June things are moving a little bit slower as we have few boats to sell and boaters are moving towards the time of year where they are playing with their new toys rather than searching for their next boat.  However, the demand for new and brokerage vessels remains much higher than normal. Right now, boat builders just need a little more time to catch up on their production to meet demand. There is no time to waste….

That said, isn’t it true that we often don’t get the opportunity or the time to do many of the things we’ve  always wanted to do?  Life flies by and there you go.  You have to take advantage of opportunity when it greets you. You get a window of time and you just go for it!  Just that opportunity presented itself to me in March of 2020. Like most of the rest of the planet I received an unexpected vacation from my  workplaces. I was going to work from home for the next several weeks! What would I do?

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE MY BUILD PHOTOS!

I had wanted to build a wooden boat since I was in high school but I had never made a real effort. It was just a dream and desire I had felt but really no action was taken. Fast forward 40 years to when the involuntary vacation of unknown duration (IVUD) came to be I took action! All the boat plans I had viewed over the years, all the pictures I had seen of boats being built, and all the previously untried ideas about boat building methods that were rumbling around in my head now had an outlet. Finally.

I bought my marine plywood, epoxy, and other items and just started. Just me in the garage. After ten to 12 hours per day over the next 60 days or so all the while working from home making phone calls to current clients and future ones from my garage office, I had built my first boat. I designed her on paper first and cut her out to make a very simple model and built her on those dimensions. The boat actually looked just like the cut out model…wow.

Using a couple of different boat building methods It was a fast and dirty build. I did it just by starting and not stopping until I was finished. I will say I probably would have quit without the encouragement I received from friends on Facebook as I posted pictures as the project progressed. They really made me feel good about my efforts.  I am pretty grateful for the encouragement I received. I ruined several pairs of pants and shirts along the way and exposed my skin and lungs to stuff I probably should not have but it is what it is as they say. Oh, and the boats name is “UNO”!

Now all I need is time to use it! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Fair winds and following seas,

Greg