This boats inception began fifteen years ago, when I came upon some boatbuilding books which had belonged to my deceased father John. Having a background in furniture design and woodworking helped make this a logical next step in my creative work. I had purchased some plans online, and liked the lines of that boat, however it was a sixteen footer.
I contacted the marine architect Karl Stambaugh who had originally designed that boat, and when I told him my wish to have an 18 footer, he was very kind in offering the offsets from his original idea, which I eagerly accepted. He had not proofed the design by lofting it out, and urged me to work the bugs out, which I did. I spent much of my spare time reading all I could get my hands on about boatbuilding, as I lofted her out on sheets of plywood.
I began the frames for my boat on the east coast, and moved everything I owned to Washington, where I live now. This is the most ambitious project I have ever taken on. She has taken a total of twelve years to build as I worked on her in my spare time. There were long periods of time when I was not able to work on her. I have done all of the work on her myself, except for the paint job, which was beautifully done by Jeff Kuss. My wonderful mentor and my former supervisor Stewart Hoagland, has proven to be an inexhaustible source of ideas, suggestions and inspiration, although he probably would tell you otherwise. My incredible wife and best friend Jayne Johnson has been behind me throughout this process, and being a smart man, I have named the boat in her honor, hence St. Jayne. A more appropriate name there could not be. She (not my wife) will be trailered and will be launched shortly after the boat show with a proper celebration.
This has been THE bucket list project of my life, after this no more big projects ( Honestly… I swear it’s the truth) Any of my friends will just shake there heads with a smile and say “right.”