As time passed and I was firmly in the grip of sailboat mania I purchased a 15' Venture catamaran. This was MacGregor's answer to the then wildly popular Hobie 14. Of course the Venture was less than half the price of a Hobie Cat. My boat was fun to sail on the many lakes in and around Orlando, in Orange County, Florida. I even braved the Indian River of Florida's inland waterway a couple of times. Tacking between shrimpers and powerboaters was exciting and a real work out.

    While fast is fun, having a wet butt most of the time is not. Adding to that the fact that no wind means no movement I decided pretty quickly that I wasn't cut out for absolute minimalist sailboats, no matter how fast.

      The next logical step seemed to be moving up to a boat with some accomodations and the ability to have an outboard motor. So I bit the trade-in bullet and moved up to a Venture 17.

     By now I was subscribing to sailing magazines, reading sailing books (Remember The Dolphin Book Club) and even toying with the idea of becoming a "Yacht Designer" ala the Westlawn school.

    Since childhood I had been a tinkerer and builder of sorts. My passion for building things was easily transfered from building my own house to building my own boat. So at the end of 1973 I purchased a house, with a back yard big enough to use as a boat yard.

     The Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) however had a different idea. After the Arab oil embargo had started to make its demands felt on Florida's and the world's economy I was left with a fine new house, big back yard and no job to pay for it or to manifest my boat building dreams. After the setback of having to sell the house and finding a new job I was once more off persuing my dream.

     Another move, clear across the county to Newport Beach, California began the dream anew.

     With my appitite whetted by the Pardey's "Go small, Go simple and Go Now" philosophy and Serrafyn thier Lyle Hess designed 24' boat I settled in a boatyard just down the street from the Sam L. Morse company. I lived in a small community of like minded sailors with advice, material and the builder just down the street, boy I was set. Little did I realize at the time that I was still nearly 16 years from sailing off into the sunset.

    It seems my building dreams and skills propelled me into becoming more of a builder than a sailor. I believe the boat pictured at the left is "Xyphias", Roger Olsen's BCC. While working for Sam, Herb Reynolds and I built a good portion of the basic boat that was to become "Xyphias".
Xyphias 25+ years later.

    The entire exterior of the boat was built at the Crystaliner facility in Costa Mesa, Ca. "Xyphias" was used as the model for the BCC's interior. It was a roughed in interior as Roger wanted to finish off the boat himself.

    When I first moved to SoCal I did not work for Sam. He was just starting out and my boat building skills were not yet developed. I managed to land a job with Pacifica a local builder of large performance sports fishing boats. But my heart was in sailboats.

     I had already purchased a BCC hull (#18) and there it and I sat. I didn't even have the money to buy the ballast at first. This boat building thing sure cost a lot of money. The frustration of minimal resourses and not yet fully developed skills led me to sell this boat before completion.

    Now I had a more sizable chunk of money and thought if small is good then smaller is better. Off on a visit to the North Sea factory. The North Sea 27' was a really good smaller boat. But purchasing the hull, deck, ballast and inboard diesel would have zeroed my bank account again. Now with my perfectly developed hindsight I realize I should have bought one of these boats. At the time I wanted a finished boat in the water as soon as possible. So I reduced my vision again and went to the Pacific Seacraft factory. There I met Henry and Mike the founders of Pacific Seacraft. We talked, I bought. And in just a few days a shiney new PS 25 hull and deck found its way to my boat building space.

     Here is "Freedom" well along in the construction process.

     By this time I was working for Sam Morse. My woodworking and fiberglassing skills were well on the way to being highly developed.

    Since I started this boat with a good amount of cash on hand and continued to work full time for Sam I was able to do everything first class.

     The samson post on the foredeck, cast bronze hawse faileads and SS chainplate for the headstay were some of the many customizations made to the boat.

   During the building phase Henry and Mike stopped by one day to see how the boat was progressing. They told me my boat was the best and most beatifully built PS 25 they had ever seen. Certainly puffed up my ego a bit.