Richard Jagels
The author found and bought a derelict Adirondack guideboat in the early 1970s, then restored it using the fiberglass cloth and polyester resin common at the time. He went on to build the wooden trailer shown here, which he wrote about in WB No. 101.
Half-a-century—how time flies! My column missed WoodenBoat’s launching by four years: My association began in 1977 with a phone conversation with Jacqueline Michaud, who was then the managing editor, in which I proposed writing an article about my recently completed restoration of an Adirondack guideboat. In the course of a long conversation, I mentioned my educational background in wood science and forest pathology. Unknown to me, an article on building an Adirondack guideboat was already in the works and was published in WB No. 18. Tactfully, without discouraging my guideboat proposal, Jacqueline suggested that I might consider writing a column on wood technology and encouraged me to submit a few examples. That suggestion loosed the mooring line and set my sails on a life voyage that continues more than four decades later.