Glen-L.com

I have recently been corresponding via several private messages with Fritz, another forum member here, who is also planning on building a Zip. We got into somewhat of a discussion about getting the boat onto the water to PROVE that we can do this, to our wives and our friends. I got onto somewhat of a rant about this subject and then I thought that I should post it on the forum rather than just in a private message to one other member. I got to thinking that if Fritz and I had experienced this one thing, I'd be willing to bet that all the forum members here have had an almost exact experience.

For over 20 years, I've wanted to build a boat of my own. In years past, I always spoke of my wanting to do this. At the time, I was somewhat oblivious to the impressions of others. I somehow figured that I'm a normal guy and if other people are normal too, it's only logical that they would share my enthusiasm. I truly am niave! But as time marched on, I got to where I rarely spoke of building my boat because my friends were scoffing. I also found out that they were having quite a good time at my expense by making jokes when I wasn't around. The jokes were starting to get cruel. Many just came right out and blatantly said that it would be a cold day in hell before Dave Grason ever builds a boat. Ouch!! That hurts! But I've also found that this kind of fun poking has been very motivational to me. I admit that I've become very thin skinned on the subject having no "armor" left. But each time I become the brunt of a boat building joke, I become more and more determined to see this through to the end. AND, I'm also determined to do an absolutely first class job and not to build a boat that looks amatuerish in any way. NO, it MUST be a thing of absolute beauty. I'm not going to be content with shutting my critics up. I will have to stun them with awe!

Now that I've got my Zip about to turn over, everyone has totally stopped with the jokes and each time I see them, they want to know what kind of progress I'm making. Many are awed and amazed but some are a quite jealous. These are the ones that made the most fun but now I've totally shut them up. And that feels good.

It's in our nature to dream. Expecially this is true among guys. I don't think the girls do near as much, but virtually all guys are dreamers. If we weren't dreamers, there would never be anything getting done in the world. I've often thought that many cultures have no dreamers. That's why there are native indigenous people in remote areas of the world that are living the same basic lifestyle as their forefathers were doing thousands of years ago. Well, maybe they do dream, they just don't ever do anything about those dreams. To me that's sad.

It's also only natural to tell others of your dreams. You never know when you're going to run into someone who has the same dream. You also never know when you're going to find someone to corroborate with you and therefore, lend credibility to your dream. The problem comes when you vocalize your dreams to others over rather long periods of time and then never do anything to see those dreams come to fruition. People begin to see you as all talk and no action. To them, you start to become some kind of weird social misfit. So I've learned that when you express the idea of pursuing a goal that appears overwhelming to others, you must take action. You must work hard to fulfill your goal. Once you start talking about your goals, you'll either gain all of your friends' respect, or you'll lose all of their respect. But you'll never stay the same and it all depends on whether you're a man of action or full of hot air. And it's very hard NOT to have respect for a hard working person. Even in war, enemies respect each other when each fights very hard. The example that comes to mind is that of Rommel vs Montgomery in the African campaign of WWII. During that time, the opposing forces gained a great deal of respect for one another.

I worked in construction for many years. I have a large amount of carpentry experience. I mistakenly thought that I would find others who would be thrilled at the prospect of my building boats among my fellow carpenters out on the jobs that I was on. NOT! It became apparent that some of the best woodworkers that I know simply cannot think in terms of making wood curve. They think in terms of straight lines such as kitchen cabinets, furniture, flooring and such like. To take a group of wooden sticks and form a fair hull that not only floats, but is sleek and efficient and a work of art, is just too much mental effort for virtually all of my woodworking cohorts. So there's been no respect and no corroboration here.

One of the people who's respect means the most to me is my wife. Let's face it. If you're married, she is either going to support your goal or she's going to blow your ideas out of the sky like some worthless clay pidgeon in front of her shotgun. I've also known that if my boat was ever to become reality, I would need more than her passive tolerance. I would need her full support. Otherwise, the boat materials would never get worked into an already stressed budget and I wouldn't be able to ask for her help when it came time to do boat tasks that required that all important extra set of hands. But I have to admit, she hasn't really had much of a choice. See, the boat building idea has been with me longer than she has. When we got married, (1987) we set up house keeping the first few weeks. She saw lots of boat building books, Glen-L catalogs and plans getting unpacked and loaded onto the shelves in my office. This was a side of me that she hadn't yet seen. At first, I talked enthusiastically about this boat or that one, but obviously getting a new marriage off the ground is NOT the time to build a boat. That boat can wait, the marriage is way more important.

Over the first years of our marriage, our budget never did allow the beginning of my dream. I realized that if I was to ever build a boat, I would have to set a good precendent by being a good, honest, pragmatic, hard-working husband and gain the respect of my wife in all other areas. I also knew that I needed to keep the boat building literature in plain view at all times. I've always kept the plans and catalogs in easy reach and constantly got them out from time to time to "dream" some more. This is a very important step because it lets her know that this is NOT some passing whim. I've had whims, but I realized that if I chased those whims, they'd only hold me back on the boat build.

I do have other dreams and passions. I do love motorcycles. I always have. And I'm a real Jesse James fan. For those of you that don't know who Jesse James is, he's one of the top custom motorcycle builders in the world. I very much appreciated something he said in one of the shows he did for the Discovery Channel. This was on Monster Garage. He said that he started building custom motorcycles because he simply could not afford to buy what he wanted. He didn't have the money that others had and in order for him to have a motorcycle that was as cool as what his friends had, he had to build it himself. It was the only way. I cannot think of a better reason for my building my own boat and cannot think of a better way of describing exactly how I feel about it.

So now, I've finally gotten things somewhat together. My wife is solidly behind me and the boat is taking shape. I feel like a new chapter in my life has been started and the feeling is just GREAT! If you are someone that has a dream, please do not ever let it sit until it stagnates. Go for it! You owe yourself.

Don't knock the amateurs Dave! The word "amateur" means "lover", someone who does what they do for the love of it, as opposed to a professional who does it to earn a living.
The experience that a professional can bring to a job can be very useful, but some of the best work I've ever seen, in many fields, has been done by amateurs who don't need to make a profit, who can take as long as they like, and who really love what they are doing rather than doing it because they have to.
Unless we are professional boatbuilders we are all amateurs, so the work we do is by definition amateurish, but you only have to look at the photos of some of this amateurish work on the Glen-L website to see that the term shouldn't be used in a negative context.

Well, maybe I should have used the phrase "home-made." But then, that would not be correct either because virtually all these boats on this site are made at someone's home. The point that I was intending was to say that the quality of the boat needs to be superior in everyway. That's when it shuts up the critics

I haven't, since I haven't reached the age of 20 yet I will next month

But I only wanted to build a boat for half a year and the jokes were everywhere

"Hey mum & dad, I'm gonna build a boat"
- "Sure, do whatever you like, but stop bothering us... You keep telling about it!"

Funny thing is, I ordered the plans in an internet cafe while I was having a vacation in Croatia



Almost _everybody_ asks me how I got the curves as well. But it seams so normal for me Just screw the back part to the transom, and bend the forward part to the stem. (Don't use screws in the most forward frame of a squirt , I broke my first pair of chines on that screw )


Well, I clearly don't have one, so I just built it for myself I do hope to impress future-wife-candidates though


That's probably why my parents didn't believe me when I said I was going to build a boat; I do say many things


Well, I'm pretty sure I'll build a zip once

My brother-in-law was going to but me a 15' whip antenna with a day-glow orange flag for the top so I could locate it when it sank....

The jokes have since stopped.

Kirk

Yes, I'm also anticipating that the squirt will be a babe-magnet!!

Not much use for us married types though.

Yes, Graham, that's true. But we have something those single guys don't. With me, my wife has become as enthusiastic as I have about boat building. She's actually more than just supportive. She's excited about the build and having the completed project to enjoy at the lake. We have a lot of boating friends that have encouraged us to "buy" a boat, but we couldn't afford it the last number of years. But we can afford this when we're finished, it'll be one of, if not the nicest of all the boats on the lake.

The country singer Alan Jackson has a house on the lake where we go all the time. At his dock, there's a 1947 Higgins triple cockpit. It's the talk of the lake community. But I know that our boat will be every bit as nice as that one, albeit not as fancy, and just as crowd drawing too.

It's really nice to have someone to share the project with. It wouldn't be near as much fun if I was single. I think my wife is as proud of me as she is of the boat project. But for the single guys, YES, I really do think your boat will be a babe magnet. It will make a very obvious statement about its builder that's not really possible with any other effort. And that's an attractive attribute that's really appealing to the ladies.

Good point, I sometimes find my own enthusiasm lacking when I have no one to spur me on.......after all...there are two seats in the squirt, its a shame to leave one empty!

look at John Gardiners excellent writings concerning amateur boatbuilding.

He finally concludes the best word for all of us is "independent" boatbuilders. The word has no negative connotations, seperates us from "professionals", and allows us to have the love that Graham speaks of.

sailor

I , too, built a boat(at 59), but I didn't tell anyone I was going to, or bragg about it, BUT, I am now, now that it's almost done. I had built a small(downsized SK boat in high school. I drew the plans and a friend helped me build it in shop class. Now, granted, I'm not MR. Woodworker, but I'm doing fairly well at it. (see customers photos),and I've had a lot of positive feed back from my friends. They are impressed that I would tackle such a project( even though I've built several street cars and restored a 53 Kenworth truck). It is fun, all the hard work, and I looking ahead to another boatbuilding experience(Monaco). So, there forge ahead guys , and see what happens....Dwain Colton....

I have noticed a trend when you tell people about your lofty aspirations. The naysayers come flocking, armed and ready to tell you why you will fail. The overly cautious will warn you to be careful, and not risk too much. Most will relish the opportunity to see you fail so they can say they told you so.

They laughed at me when I said I wanted to:
Open a photography studio in Savannah, GA
Open a Tattoo parlor in NYC
Open a clothing store in NYC
Buy an investment property in Scranton PA after my bankruptcy
Buy a house to live in one month after buying the PA property
Buy property and build a cabin upstate
Build a canoe

I did all of these things, with moderate to outstanding success, and I don't regret one moment of any of it. Funny, noone has ever come forward to say they were wrong about what they said.

and now... they laugh at me about building the Glen-L Zip.

Yes, there's no shortage of naysayers and skeptics... except in my family. They now realize that I will do what I say, and that I mean what I say, and that I will succeed one way or another.

To all those who shrug off the naysayers,
doubtfuls, and skeptics, and plunge ahead
into adventure, I say

GO FOR IT!

Many successes!
Lance Rubin