There is a scowguy in Minnesota who is now building the most startlingly beautiful I20s.

http://williecrear.com/ His name is Willie Crear and when he was in his 20s he worked for Johnson Boat Works.  In fact…he rigged the 1974 M-16 we share at the Washington Sailing Marina.  Read more if you want his recollection of this period in the boat building dynasty on White Bear Lake:

Lordy, this was a step back in time for me.  I was at Johnson Boat Works from 1973-1975, and there is no doubt in my mind that I built the boat that you show in the pictures of the ‘scowsailing.com’ blog.

Let’s define what ‘built’ in the above sentence means:

In 1974, Johnson Boat Works first started building their own fiberglass hulls in-house.  Before that, they had been using Forester Boats, in Wyoming, Minnesota, as a sub-contractor.  The glass boats coming out of Wyoming were junk.

In 1974 (actually late 1973), Bob Parks and his sidekick Ed came out of Forester to Johnson Boat Works, and started laying up the glass hulls on-site in White Bear Lake.  Chatting with him in 2010 (as we were laying up the new I-20 hull), he said he couldn’t believe how much money he was making…$6.50 per hour. He said that he didn’t know what to do with all of the extra money.  On my last day at Johnson, New Year’s Eve 1975, I was making $4.50 per hour. Continue reading A bit of history …from the fella who built the boat →