We tried to make a boat in Tony’s garage. The day of insanity. I spent the first half (daylight hours) gathering what I could in glassing supplies to make the hull. I thought this would be easy. Both Tony & Myself worked at West Marine, we all live in a boat building town. But, it was not to be. There are many boat companies here, but no one in town sells stuff like woven roving or balsa core. It all comes in by truck directly to the different manufacturers. And they are not set up to sell any.

So, by nightfall, I had plenty of the wrong things. Wrong resin, wrong cloth, wrong gel coat, brushes and rollers. Everyone met up in Tony’s garage and off we went.

Tony’s garage as a boat factory lasted for about two hours after cracking the first can of resin. There we were, having tons of fun slathering resin all over in our paper suits & gas masks when Tony’s brother in law throws the door open, madder ‘n a hornet.

“This has to stop!”

We were all wondering what the deal was, until we pulled off our gas masks.

“Oh my LORD!! Sorry!”

We’d gassed out the entire family. The smell was unbelievable! Even the neighbors were looking out the windows and none of them were smiling. With our masks on, we couldn’t smell a thing.

The next day, when the family was away, Charles and I snuck back and finished glassing the hull. Even when completed, this first hull was a total disaster. Who knew the styrofoam I found, instead of marine core material, would dissolve into liquid goo?

Oh well, we had to see what we could and could not do. Now we knew. We needed a source for real parts, resin, glass etc. We needed help on the lay up schedule and, number one, we needed a place to work!