Thursday, Feburary 14,1980
Years Os Craftsmanship, Frustration Mean Reward For Boatbuilder
ByJodyFettas
(Following Is u article
which appeared la the
Sentinel Star in Orlande,
Florida.)
Christmas came a week
early this year for Rhea
Adams, and its successful
coming took some doing.
Murphy’s Law, which states
that everything that can go
wrong, will, prevailed at
times.
Adams’ story should tug
at a responsive chord in the
heart of every do-it
yourselfer, even though his
project was on an unusually
grand scale.
It took years of crafts-
Mnanship, frustration and
pleas to suppliers, but his
efforts were rewarded this
last week with the launching
of his homemade sailboat,
Lucy U. The 36-foot vessel
that he built from the bot
tom up was finally poised to
hit the water at Whitley’s
Marina in Cocoa Beach.
Getting Lucy from
Adams’ front yard on
Horatio Avenue in Maitland
to the marina was a
logistical nightmare in it
self. Height was the main
problem since the distance
between the top of Lucy’s
cabin and some of the
overpasses enroute left a
leeway of just indies. The
trip was a nerve wracking
one, but it was ac
complished just like the
construction process -
slowly.
Four years ago Adams
viewed the pile of lumber on
his lawn, and, with some
consternation, clutched
naval architect Bruce
Roberts’ (dans a bit closer.
“I didn’t have any spetial
training,” he said. “I went
to the library and read
every book I could get my
hands on.
“It was more of a project
than I had anticipated,
though. A boat does not
have a straight line, so it is
not like building a dog
house. You have to keep
everything level as you
work. It is a detailed, hand
made piece of equipment.”
Rhea (pronounced Ray)
Adams is the 55-year-old co
owner of Adams and
Burgess Plumbing Service
of Orlando. He and his wife,
Lucy, for whom the boat
was named, have three
sons, all of whom were on
hand for the launching
ceremonies.
Son Lanse, 28, came down
from Norfolk, and Albert,
26, who also lent a hand in
the boat construction, was in
from North Carolina.
Twenty-year-old Marshall
works with his father in the
plumbing business.
Six weeks earlier Adams
had relaxed in a chair in his
somewhat cluttered office
on Robinson Avenue and
discussed the beginnings of
Lucy 11.
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“So, you want to know
how you build a boat?” he
asked with a grin. “Wed,
first you build a wood mold
and then you form
fiberglass over it. When the
hull is completed a cradle is
built around it which
becomes its temporary
berth.
“A truck with a big crane
came in then and flipped the
whole thing 180 degrees,”
Adams said. “I tore out the
wood mold and began the
beam work. They are made
of laminated mahogany.”
When Adams first began
building Lucy, some neigh
bors protested what ap
peared to be die beginnings
of a shipyard in a residential
area. The sight of Lucy’s
bow nosing toward the sky
above the bushes on land
locked Horatio Avenue was
a traffic stopper.
“People were fascinated
and would stop by just to see
what I was up to,” Adams
said. “Often they would ask
if I needed help, and I
always said ‘sure.’
“I bet I had at least two or
three people every daty. I’ve
made lots of friends these
past few years. Total
strangers stopped and gave
me a hand. In fact, if it had
not been for this help I would
not be as far along as 1 am
now.”
An admitted amateur in
boat construction, Adams
said the most important
ingredient in his success
was a “hell of a desire to do
it.”
“But anyone can do this if
they really want to,” he
said. “I did build Lucy I,
which was a 10-foot dinghy.
Other than that, I have no
experience.”
Adams also doesn’t mind
admitting that he is an
amateur sailor, again
having limited himself to
the small stuff. “First thing
I gotta’ do after I get it into
the water is to learn to sail
it,” he said.
The learning process will
entail staying close to shore,
according to Adams. He
plans to sail along the coast
until he is confident of his
boat and himself, and then
he plans “to take off.”
“I want to go up to
Edenton, N.C., where I lived
until I moved here. I’ll dock
right at the foot of Broad
Street, and sure, I’ll just
show off my boat to the
town.”
After the trip north,
Adams and his wife plan to
do some island hopping.
The Lucy II has been
throughly checked out and
certified by the U. S. Coast
Guard.
According to Adams, this
includes a measurement,
after which the weigit of the
boat is carved on an inside
beam. This acts as an
identification symbol and
takes the red tape out of
foreign travel, he said.
Adams said that actual
construction problems had
been surprisingly few The
plans by naval architect
Roberts were excellent. The
only time he had a major
difficulty was when he tried
to deviate slightly from the
architects’s design.
“I was installing a larger
engine than his plans called
for, and this threw other
things off. But I did some
homework, asked lots of
questions and got to know
my sources of supply. It’s
important to have faith in
your suppliers.
“That does bring up the
other difficulties I did have.
This is a bass and ski boat
area, not an off-shore
sailboat community.
Consequently, I had trouble
finding just the right
materials.”
The finished product is 36
feet long with a 49 foot tall
mast. Lucy II has a jib,
mainsail and staysail. She is
powered by a four-cylinder,
47-horsepower Ford diesel
engine, has 800 square feet
of sail, carries 6,200 pounds
of steel ballast in her keel
(squhbh
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THE CHOWAN HERALD
and weights 11 tons. She will
sleep six. As Adams said,
“That a lot of boat!”
How much is the boat'
worth?
Adams is loathe to place a
yi jh
•. v %
price on his work. “It in
volved three and a half-plus
years of my labor, and how
do you put a price tag on
that? AU I know is that I
could not afford to buy her.”
As Adams carefully
planned the building of Lucy
he also has definite plans
for how he’ll use it.
“1 will work another five
years and when 1 hit 601 will
.———
BOATBUILDER Rhea Adams began building his
sailboat four years ago with just some plans and a pile of
wood. ‘I didn’t have any special training,’ he said. ‘I went to
the library and read every book I could get my hands on.’
The completed boat was loaded on a trailer last week and
taken to Cocoa Beach to be launched.
retire and change my whole
lifestyle. I have been
planning for 30 years to
some day have an off-shore
sailboat. It will be a whole
new way of life for us.
Page 7-B
Eventually, we will live on
board.”
Even though Rhea Adams
is a methodical individual,
there is still a bit of the
dreamer in him.