Terry says he first became interested in sailing back during the early seventies when he lived in Yankton, South Dakota. A close by marina that he visited had about 200 sailboats moored, and those visits peaked his interest in sailing. Terry has owned several powerboats and confesses to having very little sailing experience. He explains, though, that he did some sailing once on a vacation in the Bahamas. Additionally, he has been out on a friends boat twice.
    Terry’s interest in building boats comes from an early age. His dad built boats when Terry was a small child. Here is a little history. In around 1955 his dad partnered up with a couple of investors to manufacture boats. They hired a designer and built three 28ft. power boats, two cabin cruisers and an offshore. All three boats used the same hull and were built from plywood much like the Pocket Yachts we build. They hung two 75 horsepower Scot-Atwater outboards on each one. They sure could pull a gaggle of skiers! The offshore was sold to a guy from Eau Claire, Wisconsin and ran up and down the Mississippi River, one of the cruisers burned in a house fire sometime in the sixties, and the other cruiser was still floating on the Missouri River in the mid-eighties. The venture only developed the three big boats, and a few smaller boats, then the plant had a mysterious fire and the main investor pocketed all the insurance money.
    So, Terry says that is how close he came to being a professional boat builder. He relates that the family always lived near a lake and owned boats. The boat building projects started in the early in the 70’s when he built a boat for duck hunting. So far, Terry says that he has built a pram, a skiff and a 26 foot pontoon boat.
     Once he was surfing the net looking for a set of small boat plans that he could adapt into a nautical bookshelf project. Terry says he came across a set of single skiff plans that could be converted into a nice set of bookcases. It was while looking for these plans that he stumbled across the Stevenson’s web site, accessed from a link on the Duckwork boat plans page. Listen as Terry tells it. "I fell in love with these boats and was ready to order the Pocket Cruiser plans. Then I clicked on the link to the BBS. Most everyone there was building the Weekender, with a couple building the Vacationer. I kept looking at the pictures on the Stevenson’s site and changed my mind to the Weekender."
     Terry says he also seriously considered the Vacationer, but due to his limitations in terms of shop size, he convinced himself that the Weekender was the boat to build. Nevertheless, the Pocket Cruiser has kept his attention. He says he still plans to build one in the future, but for use as a motor launch and not with sails.
     Terry heartily recommends Stevenson’s boats as a boat building project for anyone. He says the boats are easy to build and he sometimes compares them to "paint by numbers" projects. He thinks the plans offer plenty of details, almost to the point of too many details. Another big help, Terry says is the Weekender building video. If someone is completely unfamiliar with woodworking, Terry says he recommends maybe trying a hand at the "One Sheet Skiff" as a training project. He has a link to the plans on his web site. He says that with a little ambition one could complete this project in the time between ordering and receiving plans from Stevenson’s. It only takes a day or two to build and the experience would be most helpful, he claims.
     Terry says he’s most excited about the Back Yard Yacht Builders Association. How much? He says, "I’m working very hard on my boat so I can have it done in time to get some practice sailing her before we have a Midwest get-together this summer." He says there are about a dozen boats within a days driving distance and a central location is being picked.
    For Terry, the reason for one to join the Back Yard Yacht Builders Association is to keep involved even after the boat is completed. Many friends have been lost from the BBS because they completed their boats and were never found again. The purpose of the Back Yard Yacht Builders Association is to keep its members interested not just through the building phase but on into the future, into the sailing phase. Where the fun really begins
    Terry says he would like to see the Back Yard Yacht Builders Association grow to a few hundred members with regional fleets all over the U.S. and in other countries around the world as well. It would be nice to see an organization of sufficient size that anyone anywhere can find others to communicate with about building, sailing, and enjoying these boats. With all having the common interest of being part of a greater sailing community of sailboats like theirs.