I've been known to bad mouth most of Bolger's designs as looking boxy but I'll make an exception for this schooner. It's about 30 feet long and has a flat bottom and looks great. Howard's always wanted a schooner so I thought this may be the one for him; then I heard from some of you guys. Turns out that it's really, really fast but also really tippy. Museum John says it's a 30 foot Laser and will dump your ass in a second if you don't have a crew of four or five. On to plan B.

This looks familiar doesn't it? Crazy Steve standing around with a cup of vodka in his hand, even the Canadians couldn't stop him. He and Lenna are up at their place on Wolf Island on the St Lawrence river right now. He took his new sailboat with him and is having a ball with it, as seen here with two more boozers out in it with him. The drinking water for all these places comes right out of the river with no treatment. The Lee sail man is looking for a picture of one of his sails, here's one, notice the lack of battens for a perfect shape.

The view out his window.

Chuck the Duck of Duckworks magazine went up to Lake Powel on a kayak trip with some of his pals. Says the lake level is down a hundred feet and good camping places were few and far between. Hot and dry describes this area. How can there be nothing growing along the shore? Surely some grass seed would blow in, something. These pitiful little scrub plants don't really qualify. He said that he was clipping right along with this umbrella sail. Helen and I were there a few years ago and almost drowned in the lake. We hadn't swam in fresh water in decades and didn't float at all.

Here they are in a big bunch, fine looking group. Chuck is the funny looking one. He always seems to be in really hot places, he needs to go up to Mass next winter and go ice rowing with Richard Honan. Then he could say he knows crazy people who are hot and cold.

What do you do when you're a successful business man, have beautiful women falling all over you and know pretty much everything there is to know (kind of like me and Whalen); what you shouldn't do is build a boat! All of a sudden you know nothing and start to question your whole life. How can this be so hard when it looks so easy. Fland Sharp did just that and is doing a fine job of it but it's taking way longer than he thought, good thing he's not paying by the hour. This boat is a Point Comfort 18 skiff and it looks like a nice boat.

Once in a while Bob hits a home run with the cover of his MAIB's. This is one of the best pictures of a boat under sail I've ever seen. Note the perfect shape of the sail, the nice bow wave flowing down the hull and the cool calm relaxed look of the guy sailing this little beauty. Lenna Andrews took this shot at Cedar Key last May of me zipping along in a good blow. And no, I don't need no stinking reef.

Me and the real Laylah at the South Florida museum and me fixing the big hole in the bottom of the new boat. Why would anyone own a boat?

Ron and Dale of the West Coast Trailer Sailors rented a little trawler on the Erie Canal and spent a week singing the canal song. They met up with a couple of other of their guys. Ron says that sailboats are great but this trawler really has it's appeal, air conditioning and all.

It's a Nomad and it's all glass and very little wood, my kind of boat. They even went to the Buffalo Maritime Center and talked to our old buddy Roger Allen. You know, this is the way to do a trip like this. Ron says it was a lot of fun.

I've talked about Richard Honan building a Melonseed. He finished up last month, took it for a trial sail and then down to the wooden boat show in Mystic where he won this; Best in Show. Not bad for an old Yankee on his first time out. Notice that the plaque is covering up the boat so we can't see.

Stan continues to make progress on the junk, the rudders are perfect, this thing gets bigger and bigger; all 16 feet of it.

An oldie but goodie; my Helen in 1970 in her combat boots. She's an Army captain and nurse in Vietnam here playing with wounded guys on an airplane. You know the old "your mother wears combat boots" insult, well in my boys case, she does. How come we were so perky when we were in our 20's? The other one is Laylah and Helen's sister Norma Ann last week digging for treasure with neighbor Ernie were in our 20's? The other one is Laylah and Helen's sister Norma Ann last week digging for treasure with neighbor Ernie.