While living on Midway Atoll for more than a year doing historical renovations of the WWII buildings—transforming barracks into hotels for veteran + ecotourism—and leading new construction of a beachfront restaurant, we worked six days a week.
The seventh day was for fishing.
This is where I developed a love for boating, diving and angling. When I got back to the mainland, I’d look for work as a deckhand in between construction projects, just to get out on the water, and learn as much as I could during season.
From there, I started captaining + maintaining boats for friends who just wanted to get out on the water and preferred not to wrench on their own boats, which I enjoy.
This allowed me to lead trips all over Southern California + Mexico from the Coronados to Catalina, San Clemente Island, and even a 10-day trip to Guadalupe.
Over 25 years, I’ve renovated four fishing boats—24 Wellcraft, 34 Luhrs, 48 Uniflite + 50 Pacifica—including woodwork, fiberglass, engines, and electronics. My background in construction and collaborating + apprenticing with electricians and plumbers has paid off when it comes to rebuilding, repairing and caring for boats.
There’s no better place to test your work than 100 miles off the coast!
I also find creating a balance between life and work is energizing and makes me better at both. But, passing these skills onto my son and getting to enjoy well-earned trips together is the most gratifying.
The boat pictured here is the ‘34 Luhrs, which belonged to Stan Laidlaw who I replaced as a Superintendent & Carpenter on the Midway project many years before, and with whom I continued to work for 20+ years through Hollister Construction, and his own company, Laidlaw Building & Development.
It’s one of the four boats that I was instrumental in renovating but was involved with the longest. I traveled to the east coast to get eyes on it and run through everything before giving the thumbs-up and coordinating the third-party purchase + preparing it for transport.
Once it arrived in San Diego, CA, the extensive renovation began. I maintained Osprey for more than 15 years before preparing it for sale just prior to relocating to Idaho. We caught a lot of fish on that boat and I will always be grateful to my good friend, Stan, for his trust and generosity in allowing me to care for her.