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January/February 2006 Issue 46 www.goodoldboat.com 00 00 $7 (Canada $9 CDN) 02 7 25274 97035 3 On newsstand until February 28 Feature boat was unknowingly the prototype for the term “Renaissance man” long before Don Launer’s the term caught on. Many would be satisfi ed with the combination of technical expertise and creativity involved with this ca- reer, but there’s more to Don. He has the skills of a concert pianist and still plays daily on the piano his family owned when he was a boy. He tends an herb garden. He is a rather expert winemaker. But there’s more. Built a brick house The year Don and Elsie Launer’s sec- ond child was born, Don bought some books, a concrete mixer, and 28,000 used bricks. He knocked the old mor- tar off each brick and built the home in which he and Elsie (and the two children during their formative years) lived for 33 years until his retirement from ABC in 1989. It shouldn’t surprise any of us that this master of many trades also built his Lazy Jack 32 schooner from a bare hull, should it? That boat, named Delphinus after the constellation, is the focal point of the home on a waterway that he and Elsie share in Forked River, New Jersey. The boat- building project was conceived in the Lazy Jack 32 late 1970s as Don began contemplating retirement. He had sailed a number of boats as a youth and raced in a fl eet of Lightnings in his 30s, although he gave up racing when he realized that the He’s a jack of all trades intensity of weekend racing does not provide a good escape from a stressful and master of most work week. As a family man, Don has owned more than 18 boats during his life, by Karen Larson including a 17-foot Picnic boat and a 22-foot Rhodes, both by General Boats (see his article in May 2005). ENAISSANCE MAN WAS NOT A TERM and-white broadcasting to an entirely Then there was an Essex 26, one of in use when Good Old Boat different medium with instant satellite the few center-cockpit models in that R contributing editor Don Launer transmissions and real-time news and was growing up prior to World War II. It worldwide special events. Delphinus, Don Launer’s Lazy Jack 32, was not a concept during his service as From the age of 11, Don knew he this page, is a familiar sight on the a sergeant/radio operator and repair- wanted to be in broadcasting. He got man in the war, nor when he studied his ham license, studied for the job, waters of Barnegat Bay near his home for an electrical engineering degree and was at the right place at the right in Forked River, New Jersey. Don pur- afterward. time as television broadcasting got chased the boat from Ted Hermann in It was not a term when he joined its wings. He led the technical teams 1980 as a bare hull, photo at top right. ABC as a television engineer and that covered special news events such Then, as always, he did the work him- moved through the ranks to the title as presidential conventions, missile self. These days he’s a one-man band of engineering supervisor. At ABC launches, and — for 20 years — all he served at the leading edge of the the Olympic games. He has two Emmy running a two-masted schooner from television-broadcast revolution as Awards on his mantel for Olympic cov- bow to stern. Despite an approaching it moved from simplistic live black- erage. That is one facet of the man who 80th birthday, he makes it look easy. 4 GOOD OLD BOAT January/February 2006 It shouldn’t surprise any of us that this master of many trades also built his Lazy Jack 32 schooner from a bare hull, should it? size range. The family made some all, 35 hulls were created before Ted memorable cruises on these boats, but Hermann ceased production. Don’s is as retirement loomed, Don says, “ I hull #31. Since the boat was in produc- wanted to retire with a good cruising tion at the time, Don could have had boat. I began looking for a salty-look- a completed boat delivered, but what ing shoal-draft, keel/centerboard boat would our do-it-yourself Renaissance with comfortable accommodations.” man rather do? He was unmoved by everything he saw until a friend showed Don a Old and crusty drawing of Ted Brewer’s Lazy Jack When he decided that this was the schooner. He knew immediately that boat and that he’d like to do the fi nish- he had found his retirement boat. Boat- ing work himself, Don was warned builder Ted Hermann, on the North that Ted Hermann was “a crusty old Fork of Long Island, N.Y., had commis- New Englander.” Undaunted, he visited sioned this design and was building the boatworks and, following a tour, the fi berglass schooner at the time. In announced that he’d like to buy the www.goodoldboat.com 5 Feature boat The living space on Delphinus is sooth- ing and comfortable. Don says creating the interior was the most difficult part of the project since nothing’s really square. All he had to begin with were the fiberglass liner, which established the galley area for example, and the patterns for bulkheads and other wooden structures. He used mahogany throughout, generally following Ted Brewer’s accommodations plan. interior furniture, particularly in the galley, was there. And the lead ballast had been installed. The ports had not been cut out and nothing else had been done. The rest was up to Don. He worked a miracle and made it look easy, of course. By May, just five months later — while working full time, remember — Don had the schoo- boat as a bare hull. Ted Hermann, ner ready on the outside and launched Delphinus was endowed with many realizing no doubt that some do-it- her. Three months later, in August, he modern conveniences uncommon to yourselfers gave an entire line of boats had her rigged and took his first sail. It sailboats her size in the early 1980s: a bad name, lived up to his reputation took another year or two to complete a freshwater shower in the cockpit as by replying, “I don’t know if I want to the creation and installation of interior well as another in the head compart- sell it to you.” In retrospect, Ted must systems and furniture. The moment at ment, a built-in air conditioner with a have thanked his lucky stars many which this sort of work is completed is seawater heat exchanger, heat supplied times to think that Don Launer bought harder to pinpoint. The work continues by electricity at the dock or by kero- and finished one of his boats. The indefinitely, and maintenance begins sene while cruising, a kerosene stove, excellent publicity he’s created for it is where the installation projects end. In a heat exchanger to heat water with immeasurable. For examples in Good fact, they often overlap. the engine, pressurized hot and cold Old Boat, see Don’s articles in Novem- water throughout the boat, refrigera- ber 2000 about the club-footed jib and Nothing’s square tion and a freezer with ultra-insulation, January 2001 about sailing a schooner. “The interior is the most difficult,” Don a 12-volt washing machine, cable and Ted then ran Don through an inter- says. “Nothing is square or rectangu- telephone when tied up at the dock, rogation about boat construction that lar. Boats are composed of compound a hi-fi . you get the idea. This was to lasted an hour and a half. Don smiles curves.” Don says he remained true to be a thoroughly modern and infinitely as he recalls the day. Apparently he Ted Brewer’s interior layout “with very comfortable cruising machine. passed the review because Don was few changes.” He was able to copy Ted Delphinus sails like a charm. Her allowed to purchase a hull. That hull Hermann’s patterns for bulkheads and schooner rig looks complicated, but was delivered in December of 1980. It other interior wooden parts. That re- she is easily singlehanded. Her sails was nothing more than a hull with a ally helped to move the interior work are boomed and self-tending. The skip- deck resting loosely on it. The fiber- forward. He used mahogany through- per intones “ready about” to no one glass liner that established some of the out the interior. in particular, puts the helm over, and 6 GOOD OLD BOAT January/February 2006 goes on his merry way. tank that can carry There are no lines to 25 gallons and operates tend and there is no wild as a standard holding tank. It grinding on winches. In can be emptied at a marina or at fact, this schooner, in classic Don’s dock, where he is able to pump tradition, has no winches. out at the dockside facility he designed As a sailboat, she has no and built himself. That shouldn’t amaze bad habits to speak of. After anyone, should it? sailing with Don, Jerry Nor should it surprise Powlas wrote the fol- anyone that Don busied lowing glowing report. himself with the creation of a cruising guide to the Seemed too small New Jersey waters that he calls “Thirty-two feet on deck home.