How come none of our boats never get mentioned in the "just launched" or "new boats" section of any of the boat magazines? We seem to put out a new boat just about every week; I know, it's not as newsworthy as some guy who spent three years building an eight hour canoe and we wouldn't want to flood the pages with too many strange boats and heaven help us if they also included all of the weird floating things Washington Dan comes up with.

Instead of pictures here are a couple of youtube videos of some of my new kayaks. I'm still looking for a 14 footer under 20 pounds that won't rot and I can stay in without worrying about going swimming and spilling my beer. I think this first one may just do it. The second one is a kids boat I made using left over foam, you'll love seeing Crazy Steve trying that one out.

The new 14 foot foam kayak

The new 11 foot kids kayak

We have some new bar rules and this does apply to you Stan, leave your shirt on. I'll be the first in line to enforce them when any of you wenches come along.

Rex and Kathy can put out some really great boats and then give them away. This one is going to be a Caledonia yawl. I already have the first bid in for the boat, trailer, sails and all of the other stuff they they invariably throw in, $5000. I know that sounds ridiculous but I think that's what they took for the No Man's Land boat and it was worth twice that. They're like the rest of us, we can build um but suck and selling them. As you can see, Kathy does the hard part. Rex is still going with the "I broke my leg and can't get under there" story.

Jay Bliss is getting a lot of use from this funny looking hull he built. I keep telling him that it's upside down. First it was a big sailboat, then he cut off about four feet and made a smaller sailboat and now it's a high speed electric boat. I suppose next we'll see him pulling water skiers behind it, it's really time he made a new hull; I'm sure it'll be even stranger and faster than this one.

This is the line up of the final 10 of the 1978 Miss America. I can guarantee that at least one of these lovely's will be here at the shop for Thanksgiving. And I'll see if I can get her to wear this same outfit. I probably shouldn't have said that, Whalen said that he couldn't make it down but after seeing this he may change his mind and be a big bad wolf.

Which leads me into this one, the Crystal River Rats took their new big Civil War Scow on a long trip (about 50 miles) up to Cedar Key last month and say that everything worked out to perfection. One of the guys on the trip was Whalen, never can tell when you'll need a submariner. They were getting speeds out of this thing that were truly impressive. On a beam reach in 15 or so they were occasionally hitting 8 kts. I suppose if you give a big flat bottom barge enough sail and enough wind it will haul ass.

Stan loaded up his Puddle Ducks to go for a race along the beach and broke a spring on the trailer. Being Stan he know just what to do. He pulled out a couple of bungee cords, wrapped it all up and went on his way. I don't think I've told you this but Stan can come up with the most creative solutions to problems better than anyone I've ever met. Once I was out in the middle of nowhere with Stan and Michelle in a small boat with a 5 hp outboard. We were along the shore of Tampa Bay doing something with sea grass and when it was time to go home I pulled the starter cord and it broke off in my hand. Oh shit, what do we do know. No tools, it's getting dark and it's a two mile walk from where we were through the water along the shore to the nearest human then who knows how long to figure out how to get the rig back to the ramp. Stan is calm and says no problem, I'll flip start it. This is something that I bet none of you have even thought of doing, in fact I bet that no one has ever done this before. He took a small line, tied a loop in one end, put the loop over one of the blades on the three blade prop, wrapped it around a couple of times and pulled. We had to have it in gear to turn over the motor and if it actually started I had to get it in neutral really fast or no telling what would happen. I could just see Stan's fingers and arms flying all over the place slinging blood in the water for the sharks. Well, believe it or not, the sod started on the second try and everyone had all their fingers. We made it back to the ramp a little after dark. Whenever I tell this story I get looks of disbelief and I'm sure they can't picture this being done. I do not recommend anyone doing this ever and I would never actually do it myself but I'm glad I was there to see Stan do it.

Kevin Lott is still working on his Cortez melonseed, I'm tempted to make another one myself just to get to play with the smooth hull. I sent this picture of me in Laylah to remind him of what he'll have when he's finished. These little things are so much fun. Notice the lack of reef lines on this new sail, they just screw up the shape.

When Helen's sister Norma Ann was here to help me with the broken shoulder girl I needed a boat to go for river trips. "Helen Marie" was out of the water for a bottom job so I took the sailing rig out of the Core Sound 17 and ran it with the little 2hp Honda outboard. This is a great motor boat, it's very stable and roomy and goes like hell with this tiny motor and I was only running at half throttle. If you need a small motor this is the way to go and they're air cooled and 4 stroke so you don't need to add oil to the gas. These ugly sleeveless shirts you see me in a lot of the time are my work shirts for the shop. They are cooler than shirts with sleeves and when they get all painted and glue smeared I just turn them inside out to get a whole new life.

Irwin (Pop-I) Schuster in the flesh. See, I'm not the only strange one on this list. I think all I need to say about this is Halloween and grand kids and a foam ax.