Retired
Teacher Gerry Lavoi emailed me with some questions
about my Walkabout design. Nothing new in that, I
get such enquiries a couple of times a day and try
to reply to each and every one. In this case the correspondence
went on for a while, detailing what he wanted to achieve
with the new boat and some background on himself.
That adds a freindly tone to the exchanges and I came
to enjoy hearing from him.
It seemed to me that cruising the islands and inlets
of British Columbia where he lives was well within
the capabilities of both the skipper and the boat,
and that building a project like this would be a good
way to spend the winter.
But after he bought the plans the frequency of the
emails reduced and other than a couple of technical
questions I did not hear much from him for a while,
and then he wrote to tell me that he had completed
the boat, launched her and was carefully evaluating
her abilities and characteristics. Gerry is a methodical
type, testing and trying the boat, extending his limits
slowly rather than heading off into the wild blue
yonder in an untried craft with a tyro skipper in
charge, and its been wonderful to watch the progression
from the first tentative testing of the waters to
the first cruises and adventures.
He has a great little webpage here http://gerryl-walkabout.blogspot.com/ .
Enjoy the reading, and do go and check his writings
now and again as there are bound to be adventures
over the summer.
John Welsford.
Designer.
