The Landing School and my new life in Maine

[rbgarr]

In September I enrolled in their Marine Systems Technician course to learn (in some depth) all those things I've read about and wanted to understand more completely for years: construction, composites and epoxies, hull fittings and fastenings, pipes and plumbing, electricity and electric installation, sealants and adhesives, gas and diesel engines, spars and rigging, pump technology, propulsion systems, steering and controls, refrigeration, air conditioning... and all the 'little' things in between.

The topics and lectures come to us rapidly with detailed tests and practical projects to demonstrate what we've learned falling one upon one other seemingly overnight. Many late nights reading, prepping for tests and working in the laboratory which is named after one of my first employers (and idols)- Rod Stephens, Jr. The instructors' knowledge and experience is vast. I now realize that my previous understanding of these things was 'half-vast', so to speak.

It's all been a lot of fun and like drinking champagne from a fire hose, but the time demands have turned me in to a WB lurker. I had tentative plans to meet with Gareth Hughes (Hwyl) who lives in the same town I've taken a B&B room in for the ten months of the program, but haven't even followed through on that. Nor have I had dinner with nearby college roommates and graduate school friends. New Year's Resolutions!

There are several guys in the program who live in the same B&B. They are all younger and it's sort of like college again. They do quite a bit of drinking and partying on the weekends and I've been introduced to karaoke and bar life on the occasions I've offered to be their designated driver on weekday nights. Very humorous.

At the inn, I've got my own tiny bedroom with a bath, microwave, fridge, cable TV and all the hot water I want. Utilities are included, thank goodness, given the winter it looks like we're going to have.

At each week's end, it's wonderful to drive the two hours home to Boothbay Harbor to rejoin my wife. She has been hard at work planning and coordinating the rebuilding of our home here for winter and extended family and friends living. While that goes on this winter we are staying at her mother's heated summer house next door, which is very convenient to say the least. The dollar outlay for the work on the house, which has involved the removal of entire ell and rebuilding from the granite ledge up, is staggering and may consume the bulk of the proceeds from the sale of our old house in Georgia. But so be it.

We're renewing old friendships and making new ones here in New England, losing southern mannerisms at a rapid clip after twenty years of living in the south ("It's not a 'nor'easter', Sonny.. it's a 'no'theastuh' down heah!")

:D

[WindHawk]

:cool:

[Willin']

Very cool Dave! Hopefully you'll be working in one of the local BB yards before long. I hear there's a constant demand for your specialty at the big ones.

Best of luck!

Mark

[bamamick]

You're doing what so many of us wish that we had the cojones to do (and the smarts to go with them).

A new life! Wow. May it all work out perfectly for you. And don't be such a stranger.

Mickey Lake

[BrianW]

Sounds great to me also. But at only two hours, I may be tempted to visit home mid-week, once in awhile. ;)

[John B]

Thanks for the update Dave, What a neat thing to be doing. Merry christmas To yourself and family.

[Bill Perkins]

Sounds very interesting Dave .I was just down in Thunderbolt Ga. ,where some of that good stuff comes together . Hinkley now has a service yard there , and Palmer -Johnson still builds there I was told , their service yard being under new ownership ; anyway there are allot of knowledgeable people walking around .

There were fine boats of all types at Hinkley , including a couple of like-new Hinkley Picnic Boats that brought tears to the eyes . Their hulls are of Kevlar and carbon fibre as you probably know , with a bow thruster nicely worked in .I got a good look at the bottom of those 2 boats . I had no idea that the Picnic Boats were hard chine .

[ 12-21-2005, 02:17 PM: Message edited by: Bill Perkins ]

[Hwyl]

Let's get together sometime in the new year. I have a temporary job delivering insulated lobster boxes. I'm putting in 12 to 14 hour days and commuting to Mass to do it. Should be done by Jan 1

I did call once but it was a bad line and a bad time.

gareth

[StevenBauer]

Did you get to the small boats launching today? Or get to see the big boats get turned over?

Steven

[rbgarr]

I saw the four Beach Peas christened (one had a plank cracked by an overenthusiastic christener!) and launched. Very happy owners. I don't think the big boats are ready to be turned upright yet.

[Concordia..41]

Just wanted to say congrats on following through with your plan!

Good luck with all you do!

- M

[rbgarr]

Thanks all. The decision to do all this was made so much easier for us by the support of our family and friends (yourselves included). Being empty nesters helps, too, though ffrom time to time we sure could use the strong back of my son who's off in Oz having the time of his life (as he should).

There are several burgeoning boatyards in the area in need of systems techs and I'm looking forward to the search for work. Hinckley has plans to open yet another facility in nearby Wiscasset, even bigger than the one in Savannah, so that's on the list too.

Margo- The new owner of Boothbay Harbor Shipyard (most know it as the old Sample's yard) owns a Concordia yawl that he keeps out front on a mooring. There's a small house on the end of the pier which I gather he lives in during the summer. He's got plans to turn the yard into a noteworthy place to get plank on frame building and repair work done. David Stimson is the yard manager and they restored the Herreshoff New York Thirty #1 ALERA this past winter. Driving by there yesterday I saw that they've now got another NY 30 hull (from the IYRS?) to rebuild. They have announced plans to hire for the building of a replica of one of the Jamestown Settlement boats and more. All that is written up in the current WB issue #188. They also will be the site for a wood boat building course (college credit) this winter, according to the local paper.

Now that guy's REALLY got the courage of his convictions!

The sun has just peeked up over the trees and the construction guys are banging away at the foundation footer forms on our new ell. They poured the concrete yesterday (pouring concrete on the Winter Solstice?? Hmmmm-) so I'm going to go have a look see at how it's going. I've got to mark a tree for removal anyway....

[ 12-22-2005, 07:41 AM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[rbgarr]

FWIW- Pics of the progress on rebuilding our house are shown here:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2115829411

[Concordia..41]

This would make a perfect Christmas card:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid198/p9464590737f15d2f7bb83b693c1360f0/f0f53d3c.jpg

(For the record at least one of us on this thread has a real aversion to that white stuff you've got everywhere - pretty or not....)

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

A great story, hope everything works out well. ;) :cool: :cool:

[stormpetrel]

Welcome to New England, and especially to Maine,
land of wooden boats! Hopefully you'll get to the
Maine Boatbuilders' Show. Great parties at WBF
members' homes, I hear! Also, there are quite a
few of us with southern roots/connections. You
can even find grits and bisquits 'n' gravy on
Cape Cod now!

[rbgarr]

I'm originally from Massachusetts (Lincoln, west of Boston and Osterville on Cape Cod) so can't claim any true southernness. My wife is from Savannah, though, and she will maintain some true southern traditions ("Hoppin' John" for New Year's anyone?)

The school will have a booth at the MBBS so I'll probably attend and hope to see other WBForumites then.

[Clinton B Chase]

Dave, Your position is great in terms of finding work...this will be our huge challenge at the end of my LBS adventure...where to work? will the place be right? will I do well? do we have to move? what options do we have around Portland if I stay? should I do systems? It is so fun to start this new career...see you back at school!

Cheers,
Clint

[rbgarr]

Finding work will be the real test, won't it!

[Matt J.]

For the record, I hate you guys! I've been dreaming of going up to the Landing school for several years now... I just can't drop everything for 10 months full time (yet?)... :(

Congratulations, though, sincerely. Even if i'm miserably jealous, I'm happy for you nonetheless.

[rbgarr]

I wrote this in my first post:

There are several guys in the program who live in the same B&B. They are all younger and it's sort of like college again. They do quite a bit of drinking and partying on the weekends and I've been introduced to karaoke and bar life on the occasions I've offered to be their designated driver on weekday nights. Very humorous.

At the inn, I've got my own tiny bedroom with a bath, microwave, fridge, cable TV and all the hot water I want. Utilities are included, thank goodness, given the winter it looks like we're going to have. The winter weather hasn't been so bad but living in one small room has begun to wear, and listening to the guys through the walls at all hours (one of them left his bedside alarm on for two days while he was gone!) is not something this fifty-four year old is that interested in.
So a Christmas card that arrived yesterday was most welcome. The ex-wife of a college friend in California read (in our holiday card to her) that I was a student at the school and asked me if I'd want to house-sit her four bedroom cottage near the beach in Kennebunk. I hadn't known she and her ex had a place nearby. Presumably she got the house in the divorce settlement, but hey, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?!

"Don't worry about paying for the utilities, either," she said when I talked to her on the phone. "I've got them on for the winter anyway."

What have I done to deserve this good fortune?

:D

[ 02-05-2006, 04:43 PM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[Paul Pless]

that some kinda good kharma there

[Hughman]

Great Luck, Dave! (What's in the fridge?) ;)

[Hwyl]

I'll be over. 646 4023

[Hal Forsen]

So Coool!
Good Luck, Study hard, and HAVE FUN!
:D <-- green w/envy
HF

[Buddy Sharpton]

Greetings from Wilmington Island, GA. Often been 65 to 70 degrees in the afternoons around here. You "plan" sounds wonderful. Takes me 4 1/2 hours to drive from my home and business in Atlanta down to Savannah where my wife has "transfered her flag". Flies a lot and likes the Savannah airport security setup much better than Atlanta. Not so much traffic either, and damned if Delta doesn't charge way less, not more, to fly around the country from Savannah, even if you change planes in Atlanta. Go figure.
Anyway, having once lived in Maine, I know what winter puts you up against. Took conviction to leave the sunny South on that point. Hope you are doing well.

[Buddy Sharpton]

Greetings from Wilmington Island, GA. Often been 65 to 70 degrees in the afternoons around here. You "plan" sounds wonderful. Takes me 4 1/2 hours to drive from my home and business in Atlanta down to Savannah where my wife has "transfered her flag". Flies a lot and likes the Savannah airport security setup much better than Atlanta. Not so much traffic either, and damned if Delta doesn't charge way less, not more, to fly around the country from Savannah, even if you change planes in Atlanta. Go figure.
Anyway, having once lived in Maine, I know what winter puts you up against. Took conviction to leave the sunny South on that point. Hope you are doing well.

[Boothbay Buzz]

Hi Everybody - I just stumbled on to this forum using Google. I'm one of the group that is engaged in the new boat building classes being held at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in association with Washington County Community College. We have seven in the class and are currently learning lofting using some Arno Day plans. We meet once a week. Our instructors are Will West and Jeff Dick from the yard.

By the way, they have laid the keel and have the transverse frames placed on the Jamestown Settlement ship. I'll see if I can get a few pictures.

[uncas]

rbgarr...by all means go to Hinckley...we need a guy who knows wooden boats in that organization...
Believe me...I know from experience.....much to my horror... :(
Then again, I would be afraid that you would get lost with the head honchoes who could not care less....about wooden boats....
I'd try Robin Hood....myself....
Good luck...and needless to say, I am jealous as hell....
jamj

[Hughman]

Originally posted by Boothbay Buzz:
Hi Everybody - I just stumbled on to this forum

Welcome, BB!

I'll see if I can get a few pictures.Oh yeah! smile.gif

[Boothbay Buzz]

Here is our class.

http://www.solaranet.com/boatbuilder.htm

I'm at the far end, Jeff Dick is in the left foreground. Will West is on the left working over the lofting table. Up over my right shoulder on the back wall is the transom from the Alera. Man what poor shape she must have been in. No varnish, little left of her name and about a hundred screw holes in it.

The table is great. We worked on another plan on the floor this week and it was rough on the knees. The shop with the Jamestown ship was locked up and I couldn't get any pictures this week. Maybe next.

Stay tuned. Better pics next week.

[qm]

Sounds like you are doing generally what I did in 1985,86. We rented the house, got rid of our car by parking it in the back field,and all seven of us(wife and five children) went to Lowestoft, England, where I did the year program at the International Boat Building College. We rented an Apart on the North Sea and sent the "kids" to school with all the Brits. My eldest went to and did the 3 year Brit nursing program-excellent. The Brits loved to come from the school to our house for lunch to hear our American accents. Remember those were the days of "down sizing" and bombing Lybia and that nuclear accident in Russia. And did I get the business when I showed up to "clock in" the morning after the bombing of Libya? "You American Bomber!!"
Best year or so of my life!! As you say, it was like trying to consume champagne through a pipe-so much so fast. I would do it again in a second! Lowestoft was an excellent place to study boat building because it was a city steeped in wooden boats with plenty still around. The main public library with its coffee shop had a great collection for us boat students. The was a competing boat building program. There was woodenboat restoration going on in a couple of yards and the Atlantic Challenger by Bronson was being built and tested. So much going on! Now I grew up on a sandbar in Long Island Sound so I wanted some different boats too. Mild weather, low cost food, wonderfull people-quite different from us Americans. QM Bob

[Boothbay Buzz]

Here is a taste of the "Discovery" until I can get some digital photos.

http://www.solaranet.com/discovery.html

A story about it ran in the Boothbay Register if you would like to read more.

http://boothbayregister.maine.com/2006-02-16/shipyard_makes_history.html

[Boothbay Buzz]

Here are some updated photos from around the yard.

http://www.solaranet.com/boat1.htm

http://www.solaranet.com/boat2.htm

http://www.solaranet.com/boats3.htm

Extra credit for naming the designs.

[ 02-26-2006, 08:25 AM: Message edited by: Boothbay Buzz ]

[John B]

loooks like an h28 in there.