Stratman
Member

Date of Birth

November 25, 1946 (66)

About Stratman

Biography:

If anybody is reading this, It's great to meet you friend. I was born in the S.F. Bay area. (Stinson Beach. beautiful little place on the coast a little north of S.F.) There used to be a few boat yards around the area back then. The old "20's" wooden "Mahogany Wonders" always grabbed my attention. I used to play around there. loved that stuff.
Moved to Spokane Wash. at age 7. Nice up there too. a little cold in the winter though. Great lakes around there. My Grandfather started letting me hang out in his wood shop and taught me to use a lot of the tools. the lathe was my favorite. made stilts for all of us kids around the block. made a primitive but cool soapbox racer from an old pair of thrown away wheels and axles I found in an alley around the block.
discovered the guitar when i was 10 (1956or so). the early rock guitar players really grabbed me by the ---- and I was hooked. finally ended up with my own electric guitar and started learning how to play from records. no lessons or anything back then. Had my first band by age 13 and off to the races. made my living playing with some of the great R&b guys of the time. It got me around the world and a lot of great adventures. finally got tired of that in 1981 and decided I wanted to see daylight more and have a more normal life. what could I do? What kind of environment did I want to place myself in? NO BRAINER. I didn't want to work for any company or be tied down with with "a job". Furniture making or boats.. Yeh. Too much competition and expenses in furniture making. Shop, tools,employees,etc. for my taste.(just too lazy, I think). BOATS--GREAT!!! I asked an old boat restorer if I could apprentice for minimum wage and of to the races was I. My first job was replacing the keel on a 35 foot 1930's power boat some rich guy was rebuilding. whew; what a job. man oh man. I learned and went for it. 30 yrs later, I'm still not sorry I went for it. I spend my life in nice marinas and interesting boat yards. I've met great and truly interesting people. I never made more than $50K in a yr. but I always had a boat to live on and restore and sell. I now live on a 1928 Lake Union Dreamboat in the S.F. Bay area. and am semi-retired. I certainly don't know everything but, am still interested in wood working. It certainly has a permanent hold. I found this and another site like this one and find it kind of fun to learn more from people that have many different experiences in wood working. I hope that I can contribute a little here and there and also steer some to my site offers.
anyway, I'm very pleased to meet you and walk in beauty as my old Indian buddy always says. I leave you with one more old quote. "There is nothing absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing around with boats"

regards, Gary McLaughlin (stratman)

Location:

San Rafael, Ca.

Interests:

music, boats, travel, reading great novels,beautiful soulful women of course. Hee hee.

Occupation:

yacht restorer,guitar player(not so much anymore.