According to some of my friends in the maritime trades I know enough about boats to be dangerous. Well, OK, perhaps that’s true, but can spile and help hang a plank and dolly a rivet. Yup, I just used some authentic boatbuilder slang that is impenetrable to the uninitiated. In plain English, I can cut to shape and bevel a plank going on a boats hull, hold it in place while a more experienced person fine-tunes the bevel and positions it. And I can hold a flat iron against the back of a rivet while the boatbuilder hammers it shut. Pretty impressive, right? See, I can be helpful, if not too skillful.
On the other hand, my boat-building friends are lost at sea when presented with a rack of my carving tools. Including back bents, V-tools, firmers, and macaroni’s. They’d recognize the knife and chisels on the bench but not the specialty tools.
We are in different trades within the big tent of the maritime world. My friend would be evaluating the lines of a newly built hull. And I would be doing the same thing, but with how it would look as a carved portrait in mind. We’d both be looking at the bow. But he’d be looking at the fit of planking, and I’d be checking out how the billet head I was going to carve to fit should be designed. Over lunch we’d share our memories to gain insight into what the other might have seen that we’d missed.
Over lunches and dinners, at boat shows, we would all talk about what we had seen at the show.: the good, bad, and ugly. After a while, even if it was not your trade, you learned bits of everyone else’s. It was like attending an incredibly esoteric and fun school. People watching was how we amused ourselves at shows. There were trophy husbands and trophy wives, and individuals who appeared ready to take a chopper to their companions necks if forced to view one more boat.
It’s interesting being around individuals in complementary trades. And it made for interesting business connections. I bought mast hoops for carved trays from my friend at Pert Lowell company, and my friend Barbara Merry could do rope work to surround a portrait of a sloop.
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So very interesting, Lou; I like a lot both doing, and learning about inter-disciplinary activities.
I agree. Being around interesting people who do different things helps keep life stimulating.
So interesting and also enjoyable too. I wished to be contiuned… On the other, this new word “Chopper” seemed to me very difficult. Of course, I always forget that this is not my native langauge. When I read your short story, I admired so much, how creative and how found its place with this word. Made me excited. Inspired too. Thank you, Have a nice day, Love, nia
I was thinking along these lines watching the PBS documentary on Leonardo. My interests and experiences intersect somewhat with the editorial direction of the people who made it but mostly I found it tedious with just a lot of talking. Then it hit me; my experiences had made some of the information redundant and I was impatient for the stuff I don’t know.
You can’t fool me. You were a vhef 🤣
We would go to boat shows years ago. We would put off a purchase thinking it would be fun in retirement. But now, would not be up to the work involved. The trade shows were fun.
Like the saying goes, boats are holes in the water into which you pour money. I always loved going out on other people’s boats and never owned anything larger than a skiff.
This is a great example of learning together. I’m not interested in becoming an expert in someone else’s field, but I often love to hear them tell me what they know.