First off I'll tell you that Rex and Kathie's Guide boat sold in about ten minutes so for all of you who were thinking about it, too late. This one even almost got Crazy Steve. You all know that I hardly ever talk about politics, religion or try to sell things; unless they are super good give away deals that I would want. Say for instance you have a boat that's worth $20,000 but you'll be willing to take $10,000. Well don't ask me to advertise it for you till you're willing to give it away for $2000. Remember the last boat Rex and Kathy wanted to sell, the No Man's Land boat; brand new, mahogany and teak on a new trailer with new sails and even a motor. Precision made like a Swiss watch. Easily worth $20,000 but they gave it away for about $3000. Or my Core Sound 17, all new everything $2000 to a good home. So don't ask me to tell the Boat Nuts about your boat for sale unless you're willing to give it away.

No Man's Land boat.

We had a bunch of visitors last weekend out off my beach playing with the foam kayaks. Steve was the lifeguard seen here in this thing he calls a C1. You have to strap yourself in to keep the water out; I doubt that's water he's holding in that cup. He did real good, no one was lost.

It's not unusual for you guys to stop by to check these boats out and talk about foam building, so when Richard from Apollo Beach came down to see about making foam Melonseeds I didn't think anything of it. Well he didn't need to talk about building with foam, he wanted to see the shape of the hulls to get an idea of how many sections he'd need to make. He's going to make 10 of our boats for a sea scout group of some sort and thinks he can make the hulls from foam in about a day, no kidding. Richard has been making stuff with foam for forty years and is probably the master of the skill. Howard and I were overwhelmed with all his knowledge, which like all experts we had to drag out of him. He told us about making airplanes out of foam so we were hooked and drove up to his shop/hanger today. I didn't get a picture of them but he had a glider with 15 meter (50 feet) long wings. These long skinny wings were perfect and he'd made them out of foam and glass, with a 7 degree twist along their length!!

There were boats of all kind all over but there were also airplanes under construction. A lot of the parts are fiberglass that he'd made using foam that he glassed and them melted the foam out using acetone. He showed us how make perfect shapes using a hot wire and patterns. I even played with some foam.

Never under estimate old guys. Some just like to talk but most really do know their stuff. The hard part is to get them talking, the less they talk the more they know. Luckily I'm good at dragging it out of them. If you think marine plywood is pricy you should see airplane plywood.

Howard's always talking about making an airplane from plans so he was not bored during this trip. We may be making more trips up the road to Richards place.

Our main yard tractor is this Gravely. It needed some starter work so we'll take this opportunity to do a complete overhaul. They don't make them like this anymore.

Fishing anyone? Kayak Kathy and family went out with a charter Capt. at Boca Grand. That's a pass from the Gulf into Pine Island Sound about fifty miles south of me. They started out with these little Goliath groper caught using sting rays for bait.

Then her sister Laurie thought it was time to go for the big stuff, how about 300 pounds. All of these fish were released for the rest of us to catch.

Here's Kathy with a tarpon on or as they're known here, shark bait. It's almost impossible to land a tarpon without a big shark getting it. Lance got this big 'cuda when they went a little farther offshore.

To make sure I cover all bases, here's Jouji Lucas, our little half Japanese grandson and big Utah son Jamie with Dino the lap dog.

Dan Houston is building the worlds biggest John boat, I leave it to the small boat magazines to report on guys making "normal" little boats; I go for the odd, unusual projects.

Stan's "Junk" is really a perfect boat for you guys who want a small comfortable overnighter. "Ping" is only 16 feet long but has a big bed and steering inside and out and sails very well with it's Beetle Cat sail.

It's actually pretty stable and airy with it's doors and windows. The little 2hp Honda pushes it along nicely.

Richard Honan had dinner out in P town on Cape Cod, I hate to say it but this looks like fish bait to me although I probably don't know the difference between these two so who am I to say.