Sinking Hawaiian???

Here is a story on that 65 foot thing of a boat in the Bay Area... They will have to be gone by Friday so it will be interesting to see what happens.

THE "FLYIN' HAWAIIAN" isn't exactly flying. But at least it's floating.

And that's saying something. A lot of people around San Rafael's Loch Lomond Marina were betting the homemade 65-foot-long catamaran would sink like a brick as soon as it hit the water.

But there it is, a beige behemoth bobbing at the end of a dock lined with sleek sailboats and streamlined motor yachts.

Fifty-one-year-old James "Hot Rod" Lane and his 28-year-old son, Michael Johnson, have been laboriously building the eight-ton, twin-hulled craft over the past three years, most of that time in the Loch Lomond parking lot, becoming an ongoing object of curiosity in the bayside neighborhood.

Some of the 'handy-work'...

After working around the clock, they finally launched their dream boat in the middle of the night on Memorial Day weekend, 18 months behind schedule.


"It was 2:38 a.m. when we splashed," Johnson said the other day, standing amid a hoarder-like clutter of tools and materials in the vessel's unfinished main salon.

Were they excited to finally get it in the water?

"We were exhausted," Lane groaned. "We were nervous wrecks. We haven't had a day off in three years. My girlfriend thinks going to
Home Depot is a date."

There is no controlling the tides, but Lane and his son were relieved to launch when everyone else was asleep.

"He didn't want a crowd around because a lot of people doubted him," said Patrick Crowley, manager of Andy's Market in Loch Lomond. "It was questionable whether it would float or not. I questioned it myself, but he made it happen. I think anybody who can make their dreams come true is pretty cool. So far he's a winner."


Originally from Iowa, Lane, described by one local as "a character and a half," is a salt-of-the-earth guy who's been struggling to keep body and soul together in the small Sierra foothill town of Paradise, in remote Butte County, where more than 12 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

"My boy was working for Wal-Mart and I was doing contract labor," he said. "I've done a lot of things trying to figure out how to make money in America. It was making me crazy trying to figure out a way to get out of the workforce."

When a wealthy friend told him he could escape from all that by building a boat and sailing to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where the good life awaited him, he scraped together $15,000 and started working on his one-way ticket to a real paradise, not just a nominal one.

Starting to look funny...

"We can live aboard our boat for about $40 a month," he contended. "No PG&E, no water bill, no garbage, no problems. You just gotta be committed to wanting a new lifestyle. I don't want to be stuck doing the same thing for the next 30 years."


A jack of all trades, Lane envisions himself and his son building boats for a living on a plot of land he says is waiting for them in the shadow of Diamond Head.

"This is the beginning of my adventure to make some real money, to be able to relax and live life, to enjoy it," he said. "It isn't about the money, it's about the lifestyle."

Lane designed the "Flyin' Hawaiian" himself, despite his relative lack of knowledge about sailing and boat building.

"I'm a new mariner," is the way he puts it.

His huge catamaran has never been under sail, and may not be for a while longer. While the bulk of construction is done, the finishing work lies ahead. At this point, the interior is without windows, wallboard, flooring, you name it.

"We did this with no budget," he said, pleading for help from anyone willing to donate parts, materials or sponsorship money. "Loch Lomond has been very kind to us, but we've got to leave here by June 14. We're out of money and out of rent and we still have a little more work to do. We need a place to tie the boat up for a couple of weeks."

As the "Flyin' Hawaiian" inexorably took shape in the marina parking lot over the weeks and months it took to build it, folks on the waterfront who watched its progress with interest couldn't help but admire the father-son team's determination, tenacity and commitment to a vision of a better life.

When they at long last sail through the Golden Gate on their trans-Pacific odyssey, new-found friends like Keith Fraser of the Loch Lomond Live Bait Shop will be pulling for them, wishing them Godspeed.

"It's been fun to keep an eye on the project, and hopefully it's coming to fruition," Fraser said. "I'll be interested in following their travels. I have confidence they're gonna make it. I wish them nothing but good luck."