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OJ
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4382 Posts

Initially Posted - 03/10/2004 : 18:17:57

Here's an old article about the guy I refer to occasionally . . . and you think we've faced challenges!

Enjoy.

The Gypsy Boatwright

Bill Reed repairs boats all by himself and all the way from Maine to Florida

OFFSHORE – SEPTEMBER '92
By MICHAEL CSENGER

“Bill Reed's coming," they said weeks before he was due, talking about it down at the boatyard and in the yacht club next door. They were boaters and they needed work done. A flyer was pinned to a bulletin board, printed with blank lines for name, phone and a tally of fiber-glass woes. Bill Reed would be driving up with the warmer days, and he'd be busy, so best schedule now.
Each spring as temperatures inch high enough to cure resin, Bill Reed and his wife, Anna-marie, trek north from Florida up the coast from job to job, fix-ing boats and moving along until September finds them some-where in the far reaches of' Maine or out near Lake Ontario. It depends where the work is, for Bill has steady customers almost wherever he goes.
About mid-October they start back, stopping in North Carolina for a warranty fix, or Tennessee for a job promised months ago. But that's all migration to and fro; the Northeast, from New York on up, is Bill's prime stomping ground. People wait for him here.
“The Gypsy Boatwright” vagabond phrase is something of a fly-by-night slur, which is not at all the case. He works from the back of his van, outdoors on bluestone gravel with power cords running from the nearest outlet, and yet his finish is as fair and seamless as work from a polished mold. People wonder how. Seeing him set up scaffolds of scavenged lumber and cinder blocks, with plywood and sawhorses for a workbench, it's hard to imagine you're watching a craftsman prepare to ply his trade. Suddenly the job is finished, and watchers believe and decide they'll wait for the flyer to come around next year and have their own boat done so well.
"They have patience," Annamarie said. "Bad weather throws us off by weeks sometimes, and everyone thinks we're doing their boat first, but we do get to them all." She watched from a house on the high bluffs of Long Island, overlooking the Sound, as catspaws streaked across the water on an unsettled, grey day. The view from about 100 feet up was menacing, a swirl of jumbled gusts fit only for gulls to fly. The Reeds were staying above Port Jefferson Harbor as guests of a custom-job client, someone whose boat Bill had worked on before and who happened to have a guest apartment downstairs. Owners often pay for their lodging, as quoted in the price, but after getting to know people along the way for many years, Bill and Annamarie sometimes find themselves in nice digs.
Still, Annamarie would have enjoyed a sunnier view. "Folks up here don't understand that we live in Florida for the weather," she laughed. "I mean the lady we're staying with now called in March and said, 'Oh it's wonderful today.' I said explain to me exactly what is ‘wonderful’ to you. 'Oh, it's 56 degrees,' she said. That was going to be the high. We don't want to come up until the lows are 56. About 70 would be nicer!"
Bill was more resigned to the weather, as long as his hardeners kicked in. In their partnership, Annamarie handles the bookings, making calls and mailing out flyers to line work for the season, while Bill tries to hurry up – patiently – and get the next job done. They’ve been married seven years and have worked together from the start, with Bill already grinding on the go when they met. As they described their life and the demands of a roving business, what with phone calls and details, hauling supplies and working long days with an eye on the weather, it sounded a bit more chaotic than most commuters could bear. Particularly when you realize Bill handled it all solo for quite a while, to which Annamarie piped up, “Yeah, how did you ever manage without me?”
Bill shrugged quietly. He’s 47, seemingly calm and unposturing but dogged about getting things done. Resourcefulness is a habit “out here in the field,” as field technicians by practice say, and a while later he pointed to the temporary frame of a large cockpit piece he was working on. "You see the base of that?" he said. "It's an old double-door we found by the road, in some trash. That was lucky - helps keep the cost down - or I'd have to go spend 80 bucks for something just like it."
"We've always got our eyes open,” Annamarie explained, mentioning that they also run an antique business back home in St. Petersburg. "We come up full of fiberglass and head back with antiques," Bill put in. "Just fill up the trailer as we go along." Bill also refinishes furniture and rebuilds vintage cars in his spare time; a 1930 Ford Model A and '50 Chevy are his prize spoils.
During Vietnam, Bill served as a Seabee among a cadre of pack rats and fix-its. He learned fiberglassing at Morgan Yachts over 13 years, during which he was line foreman and helped work out boat designs for better tooling. He handled warranty repairs for the company and eventually cut out on his own in 1981, then spent the next three years fixing from Cape Cod to Hawaii. He's been handling warranty contracts and private work ever since.
And after more than a decade, he says "I don't advertise no matter where I go. Everything's Just word of mouth from owner to owner." He hangs his shingle on the bow of whatever project he's working on, a small sign that reads, "Work Being Done by Bill Reed Yacht Service," with a phone number to call. His van and matching blue/white trailer full of supplies carry similar slogans, which can be slipped off in certain states that don't welcome tradesmen.
In New York he'd just finished a classic 36-foot Chris Craft that had its bows stove-in during last year's Halloween storm. Huge gashes eight feet long and two feet wide had been smashed above the waterline, where the port holes used to be. But, Bill was already done with the boat and you couldn't tell it had ever seen a rainy day. He'd also cut a transom door for the owner, so now he had more jobs lined up cutting other doors for dock neighbors who liked the idea.
In Stamford, CT, he had to rebuild a Carver hull that sandblasters, trying to get rid of a few blisters, had blown down to nothingness. In Hyannis, there was another Morgan mast-step discovered after all these years, and all along the way there would be oil-canning fly bridge decks, custom cockpit work, and a slew of dings, cracks and gouges left over from last year's big blow. It was a sorry schedule but nothing I couldn't t handle, Bill said.
His biggest project yet was a 51-foot Morgan ketch hobbled up in Ithaca, NY. The rear strap broke while it was being launched, and the impact "disintegrated everything" as it sent the rudder up through the back of the boat, Bill recalled. "All the joinery was busted, the hydraulics were all ripped up, the wiring was torn out and the transom was wrecked."
With some pride he mentioned that he hired only two people to help with the job: a welder to cut out the rudder stock, and a freehand artist who painted the boat's name when Bill was done. Otherwise, he spent three months working alone and videotaping progress at each phase, which is something he does with every repair. He played an edited version of it to show off the job, and in time lapse sequence the boat seemed to fix itself nicely, "This isn't the full thing," he said. "I've got a whole boring tape about two hours long if you ever really want to take a look."
When he was finished with it, the boat looked pristine. Not a seam, not a ripple, not a single trapped bug showed where new glass was laid. The second launch went off with a Navy band playing brass tunes and officers singing chanties alongside cadets, for it was in fact a Naval vessel assigned to Cornell University's R.O.T.C. program. "United States Navy" was printed on the stern.
"That was a good job," Annamarie said. "Everyplace I went, if somebody said, 'Oh, you're not from around here,' and we got into a conversation, I'd say well my husband's working on that boat… ‘Oh the boat that fell?’ Everybody in town knew about 'that boat that fell. "'
But beyond mere notoriety, "I got to drive down to Florida two or three times to pick up supplies," she fondly recalled. Driving thousands of miles back and forth with only boat parts for company isn't the sort of cruising most of us have in mind, but she's glad to go. "It's hard," she said, "being away from everybody for months at a time. The first couple of weeks we're like, oh, wow, it's great to be away. Then we start getting homesick for the grandkids, so I don't mind driving down to pick something up."
Warranty work for different companies generally pays for long travels across state lines, and once that's done they tend to private repairs and custom work around the area. After Long Island, where they had several weeks of work lined up, they were headed to Connecticut then Cape Cod, Boston, and eventually a boating outpost in Maine somewhere near the Canadian border. The route back down would be equally far-flung.
"We'll drive a thousand miles out of our way for any customer with a job," was Annamarie's unofficial slogan. Even with these expenses, Bill makes a point of not charging more than local yards would for the same repair.
"There's no overhead, and when I go to a boat I take care of everything instead of calling 10 different people to handle the varnish, the plumbing, the wiring and what have you." So, not to mention some handy scrounging, his rates are competitive. "I'll also do the whole job at once - I don't need to wait on the electrician before I get to the next part, so the job gets done and you're not waiting two months to have your boat back."
When the sun is out, it's a 12-hour day, but between jobs and in rain they take time off to see the sights. "We find places most locals don't even know about, go to museums and theaters we've come across after driving through every year." The grandkids sometimes travel along for a couple of weeks, reading in the van with Annamarie, her feet propped on the dash, while Bill tackles a job.
As for vacations, Bill's rule according to Annamarie is that he'll work every day of the year but not on his birthday, which is July 4th and which they like to celebrate in the mountains of upstate New York. "We see so much water all the rest of' the time," she said. There's also a goldpanning stream near Atlanta, Bill mentioned, where they'd gathered two small vials of hard-won dust over many years.
"When I married him," Annamarie said, "I thought it was all just travel. I didn't figure on breaking my nails on this sandpaper, you know." But when they eventually retire, both agreed, “we'll already have gone everywhere and seen everything we want to see."
"And made money at it," Bill pointed out, "where everyone else retires and buys a mobile home and starts spending it all."
"Exactly," Annamarie said. "At least we'll be able to stay home."

Edited by - on

frog0911
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1349 Posts

Response Posted - 03/12/2004 : 11:47:33

Found out yesterday that this is the gentlemen that Catalina has contracted with to do the repairs on Penny II. Suppose to be latter part of this month or first part of April. I will be interested to see him work and you can bet I will be looking over his shoulder with my mouth taped, pad and pencil in hand taking big time notes. If you are going to learn, who better than the MASTER.

Edited by - on

Dkn420
Captain

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USA
298 Posts

Response Posted - 03/12/2004 : 12:27:36

Jerry: What was the estimate for the repairs to Penny II? Is Catalina requiring you to take the boat to the dealer? Glad you are getting things fixed. I'm still waiting to hear from Catalina in regard to the letter from my attorney. Yesterday I was at the boat doing some cleaning and found yet another area of "gel coat crazing" that is just about the rub rail near the center of the port side of the boat. Very strange that the gel coat keeps adding crazing spots and it hasn't been sailed during that time...It's good to know that your dealer is taking care of business....Dan #727

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