Article about Bill Garden

[Steve Paskey]

FYI, in the September/October issue of "Good Old Boat" magazine . . . Robert Perry wrote a five-page article reminiscing about his former mentor, Bill Garden (who's now 85). Perry met Garden in 1960, when Perry was just 15 and already obsessed with drawing boats.

Great stuff for anyone who appreciates Garden's designs.

Incidentally, the same issue has an article about building a strip-planked version of Dave Gerr's "nester" dinghy.

[ 08-25-2003, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]

[Ian McColgin]

Oh boy. An article about one of my favorite guys by one of my favorite guys.

First boat I lived on was a 35' Garden ketch. Garden has been kind of type cast as the full keel ketch guy, just as Perry is type case as the double headsail guy. Both have much diversity in their portfolios.

[Steve Paskey]

I have a reprint of an old Bill Garden article with plans for building DISCOVERY, a 22-foot topsail cutter. She's really just a big skiff, with a keel made of concrete and iron. But what a rig! It would be fun to build her and sail her around Annapolis, just to have the owners of all the plastic sloops staring and pointing and asking each other: "What the heck is that?" smile.gif

Perry has kept all his correspondence with Garden over the years, including lots of hand-colored drawings, and has some great stories to tell, for example stories about crewing on Garden's Oceanus as a teenager. One day he showed up with brand new dark blue Sperry topsiders, of which he was very proud. Garden told him flatly not to wear the shoes on the boat, because the treads pick up stones that scratch the paint. (Perry wore them anyway, and Garden never said another word.)

The story of their first meeting is priceless. They met at Garden's office, and Garden asked him to lunch afterward. Perry had all of 35 cents in his pocket, so he ordered the french fries, which were exactly 35 cents, and insisted to Garden that, "yup, I eat nothing but french fries." (Garden, of course, paid the tab.)

[ 08-25-2003, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]