This is an excerpt from an article in the September/October issue of Wooden Boat Magazine. Writen By Craig Stephens, Owner of Chewink

In the fall of 1993, I was directed to Pemaquid Marine in New Harbor, Maine, a small boat yard owned and run by John Stolecki. At the time, John had two full time employees with whom he could handle almost any type of work on any type of boat. They ran a lean and mean shop, turning out high quality work in short periods of time. I particularly liked John's flexibility and the quality of his thinking as he pondered my rather unconventional job. I needed a builder who would approach the work creatively, and John was willing to guide me with practical advice in tradeoffs and compromises that inevitably accompany a limited rebuilding budget.

Our low-cost approach meant that I had to be my own naval architect, and that every little bit of engineering and design work had to be done by me, by John Stolecki, by Evolution [The Evolution Company is a small machine shop in Rockland, Maine, that built the Chewink's rudder/shaft assembly], or by all three in combination. Instead of formal up-front design procedures, our collective method was to produce rough sketches and tackle the detailed design work as we went along. Evolution's design of the surface-driven components was a little more formal than this, but not much. Looking back, we made very few false steps and came up with many simple, elegant solutions. In part this was because of the extensive experience of the participants, but good communications played a vital part as well--John and Evolution both allowed me much closer access to their operations than was typical for most of their customers. I'm sure I was a considerable pain in the neck, and I am very grateful to them.

© Craig A Stephens