Dear Friends October 2009

Dear Friends, October 2009

I’m at an age when I look back and wonder if I’ve made the right decisions in my life. On my trip north, there was a part I left out. My little journey back to who I was as a much younger man. Leaving Chip Holmes’ place in Darmariscotta, I headed to Thomaston. I haven’t been there in a long time. Getting down to where Newbert & Wallace once stood, where I apprenticed, there was a new shipyard, Lymon Morse sitting there.

I parked the rental and asked a man where the old Charles Morris shipyard used to be. The man pointed to the shore, “See those wooden beams and the cut-off stubs of piling sticking out. That’s what’s left.” I climbed down the embankment and stood on the rocky beach. I found two iron spikes. This is where the Alden schooner “Summerwind” was launched in 1929. This was also where I worked in my early 20s for a short while. I put the spikes in my pocket and headed to Tennant Harbor to Leighton’s Boat Shop, next to the lobster pound.

As I came over the hill, it looked liked nothing had changed. But where Leighton’s once stood, there was a new three-story building, Lymon Morse of Tenants Harbor, the sign read. A man came up as asked if he could help me. I told him I had worked there back in the 1970s. He pointed up the hill and said Sonny Leighton had passed away a few years back and his shop had been gone for some time.

This kind of gave me a knot in my stomach. I got into my rental and drove on. I hadn’t planned to track the beginning of my career, the things and places that formed the foundation of my company today. Just some brief stops on old stomping grounds and found they have long since disappeared.

I headed to Lubec. After not finding my friend Steve at his house, I went down to the water and there was my old boat shop, R.S. Colson Boat Works. I stopped to take a look. The doors were open. I didn’t chose not to go in. This was a memory I wanted left intact. I walked down the road and found a rose bush laden with rosehips. I picked two handfuls. They were plump and perfect. Looking out toward Grand Manan and Quoddy Head, I let a big breath out. Your past is just that, the live you’ve lived. And I was looking for something that was gone. That was a long time ago.

I found a place to sit down at the beach and emotions rushed at me that I didn’t know I still had, from twenty years ago. My house burned down and I didn’t have insurance. Paid cash for it and hadn’t gotten around to insuring it. That wiped me out. Everything I had saved and any money I made went to rebuilding the house, for three very long years.

I learned about real friendship. Bert Wilcox used to say you can count your true friends on one hand. Have your house burn down and see how many of them come to help you. It kind of weeds them out real fast. But friends like Steve and Bert, who was an old man even then, helped me save what was left of my house. I refused to let the fire break me. This was not the first time that fire had consumed my life. My childhood home also went up in a fire. In saving my house, it destroyed my first marriage.

But not only did I survive the fires, divorce and other calamities. My world changed and they opened up opportunities in ways I couldn’t even dream of because they started a series of events.

I am a graduate of the school that if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger. The events in Maine pushed me permanently South, instead of just the winters.
Without the lows, you can’t appreciate the highs in your life. I don’t know who said that but it holds true. And I’ve had some grand highs. That we get to work on some of the most magnificent wooden yachts ever built and I get to meet people from all over and all walks of life are high on that list. I left the beach feeling that a rock had been lifted from my shoulders. It was good to go home. It made me appreciate how far I’ve come.

More recently, I was in North Carolina for a few days while Nathan was at the Annapolis Boat Show, representing Seakeeper gyro stabilizers for our distributor. He met up with Captains John and Aimee on the S.S. Sophie and he picked up Chesapeake Bay Magazine, and told me there was a mention of Peter Anzo’s Trumpy yacht, aptly named Chesapeake and our work on her.
Peter loves boats, he and his friends own marinas, and he is truly smitten with his new Trumpy. He plans to cruise the West Coast of Florida this winter. I hope to meet him someday. We plan to put a link to Peter’s marinas on our web site soon if our webmaster, Andrew Peeling, who is in graduate school, teaching and newly married, can squeeze me in. He’s a busy guy and still does a wonderful job.

A couple of other things I want to mention:
My monthly letters would be a series of ramblings if it wasn’t for my wife, Stephanie Smith. In addition to everything she does for the companies, Stephanie is writing again in her “spare” time. She was a newspaper reporter for many years. Lately, she’s been writing for the business magazine, Success, and has done several stories including pieces on Craig Newkirk, founder of Craigslist and the profile she did on Mario Andretti will be out on newsstands in December.

Ocean Reef’s Vintage Weekend is coming up, and easy to remember. It’s always the first weekend in December. The varnish is drying on this year’s John Trumpy Award. I hope we will see you there.

Grand Lady is still looking for a patron.

Lastly, Stephanie and I recently had dinner with Carl and Misty Vesper and Jerry and Shirley Foster. Carl is back to his old self and Misty is still the life of the party. Carl hasn’t given up boating, just downsized, although the Vespers were going on a cruise.

Until next time,

Jim Moores