Our earliest memories seemingly are the ones that stay
with us the longest. Maybe it is because such memories are from our formative
years when life itself was fresh, surprising, and so full of adventure.
From the perspective of a young child, life often seems indescribable,
and beyond words.
I
was born near water. Our home was a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Whiting, Indiana, may have been a steel mill town, but Whiting was a picturesque
town, the kind you might see in a Norman Rockwell painting. I well remember
the cold waters of Lake Michigan, and I remember the park near those waters.
For a small child, everything is large, and the Whiting park seemed to
go on forever. It was a wonderful place with a high hill and a white bridge.
There were painted benches on the top of the hill, and from those lofty
heights, I could climb up on the bench and look out on the vast blue waters
of the lake. On Top of Ole’ Smokey was
a popular song. Once while our family was riding in a car, I asked my
mother what a mountain was. She explained it was similar to the hill in
our park. From that time on, whenever my short legs would climb the hill
in Whiting Park, I stood on top of Old Smokey.
I was around three or four when my uncle built a sailboat. He was the
first boat builder in our family (and until I began building my own boat,
he was the only boat builder in our family.) I never got the chance to
ride on his boat. You had to be able to swim to do that, and I had enough
trouble walking.
At the time, I could easily walk under our kitchen table. My uncle and
another relative launched his new boat in a nearby placid lake. It took
them a few beers, but they managed to get out on the lake. One of them
fell off, but no one drowned. My uncle’s sailboat was a marvel to
my childhood eyes. I thought that one day— maybe I could build such
a boat as well.
I liked building things. My father had given me a set of Tinker Toys for Christmas. You could build all kind of things with Tinker Toys, nothing very useful, but I enjoyed working with the wood and displaying my new projects to my mother. She seemed quite interested, or so I thought.
My prize possession, though, was not a toy hammer, or even Tinker Toys.
It was a book. I could not read, but I could look at the pictures. Sometimes
my mother would read me the story, and then, I would practice reading
the story back to her. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
was my first book, and what a book it was. The steam shovel
could smile and even had feelings. In a nearby sand lot, I often dug at
the dirt with an old spoon my mother had given me. If I only had a steam
shovel like Mike Mulligan’s, I could really smooth the dirt and
dig a hole big enough to stand in.
My
favorite book, though, was the one about a boat, a tugboat named Scuffy.
I really loved this book. For those of us who may not be well read, Scuffy
the Tugboat is the story of a child’s small boat and
the adventures the boat encounters on its way to the ocean. One picture
in the book that really alarmed me was the night scene, complete with
an owl. Perhaps, it was this story (and my uncle’s adventure) that
gave me the love of boats. Instinctively, I knew someday I would build
a boat.
Years past and I became a young boy. We moved to Florida. Again, we lived
in another small town, and again we lived near water. There was not much
to do in Pace, Florida, but by this time I had heard of the story of Tom
Sawyer. I was quite surprised to learn that someone else had lived a similar
life to mine. My best friend was Chipper Barbas, and as two bare-footed
boys in jeans with rolled-cuffs, we explored the creek and nearby woods,
looking for adventure. We even built a tugboat . . . well, almost.
Chipper and I found a pine board, and we cut and filed the wood into the shape of a Scuffy tugboat. We even painted our little boat, and then put it out to sea in a large washtub. Our mouths dropped open when we saw our boat turn on its side. We had only cut the profile of tugboat in a plank, and try as we could, we could never make our plank tugboat stay upright in the water. We shook our heads in disappointment, and went fishing.
I still have the notion of a tugboat in the back of my mind. In fact,
just the other day, I ran across a worthy successor to Scuffy tugboat.
In a book called Wooden Toys, I found the tugboat
I had wanted to build as a child! It was perfect, a toy that any child
would be proud to own and proud to launch.
I immediately thought of a grandson in Florida who might treasure such
a wooden toy. In fact, I think, I ‘ll build the toy tugboat I had
always wanted and just send it to him. He’s too little to talk right
now, but in my heart of hearts, I know he will love having a tugboat all
his own. Nothing makes bath time better than having a wooden tugboat all
your own.
I looked around further and to my surprise, there are larger
tugboats you can build, large enough even for a father (or grandfather)
to accompany a child on a lake adventure. In fact, the Glenn-L folks have
a little boat they call Tubby Tug. I keep looking at
photos of what other people have built, and I keep thinking of a grandson
in Florida. Put a small trolling motor on that tugboat, and that would
just be about perfect. It’s a nice size boat, too— 9 feet
over all, and 4' 8" beam.
I searched a bit more, and to my amazement, found a period boat, a larger
tugboat. (I suspect that someone at Glen-L must have read the same child’s
book I had read.) This tugboat even has sleeping quarters and a galley.
The Glen-L folks call her Bo-Jest . She approaches an
18 foot waterline and 8 foot beam. Maybe once I finish building my sailboat,
I might . . . .
Wait, wait. How did I ever get off the subject on tugboats and the like?
I think it must be in the recesses of my childhood. This whole notion
of building a boat has been with me for a long time. Some day I may build
a tugboat, but for now my heart and dreams belong to a period sailboat
I have been working on for these last two years.
"Never leave a job until it is finished,” my father would say.
I have no regrets in having started to build a boat. I do wish, though,
I could have started it sooner. I think my uncle would have liked my sailboat.
I think he would have. My aunt has promised to sail with me when the boat
is finished. I have promised to keep her to her word.
Glen-L Boat Designs
Photos used by permission. Plans for both the Tubby Tug
and Bo-Jest are readidly available from Glen-L. Be sure
to check out their customer photo section of boats built by folks like
yourself.
Back Yard Yacht Builders
A non-commercial association of amateur boat-builder enthusiasts.
All our wooden boats are Stevenson designs.