As the rainy season started in earnest, the flow of boats for sale was slowing.  If I was in the market for a (give or take) twenty foot, white fiberglass sailboat that required at least $200 a month in moorage, plus the occasional expensive haul-out, I could get one for a pretty good deal.  But then in a year or two I’d have paid more in moorage than the boat was worth, I’d be limited to sailing within a few miles of the dock, and it wouldn’t really be possible to stop on a distant shore or island, unless of course there was a marina there.

The more I thought about it, the boat would own me.  With a bigger boat, came bigger, more expensive and complicated problems.   A wise friend told me that “the man needs to own the boat.”  Fortunately this became my mantra and many a boat fair (a wooden folkboat) and foul (a Cal 20) were passed up.

I started thinking more about getting a boat built for me, but the builders I talked to either seemed preoccupied with other projects, untrustworthy, or well beyond my price range.  One day I called Andy up on the phone.  “Say, Andy, how serious were you when you said you might be able to build me a boat?”