Looking for a boat carpenter in Toms River NJ

[GaryHLucas]

I'd like to know if anyone knows of a boat carpenter for hire in the area. My boat has been sitting on the hard for the past two years and still needs to have a lot put back together before she is ready for next season. I've never had anyone work on a boat before, but this time it is different.

I just got a bad diagnosis of prostate cancer, and it looks like I'll be getting treated over the winter and into the spring. I have two worries. There is NO WAY this boat boat is not going in the water this year! If I am not dead I AM going sailing, with my grandson! If the boat has to go, it is completely unsaleable at this time, and it might be my wife doing the selling. I don't want to saddle her with that.

Cheap would be nice, but I am a perfectionist and it would really hurt to see a hack job. Done by the earliest launch date is the goal. I can be emailed directly at gary.lucas@verizon.net

Gary H. Lucas

[eryka]

don't know a carpenter that far north; but will be thinking of you and wishing you the best during the treatments and after.

[GaryHLucas]

Thanks,
When the doctor told me I think he was kind of surprised that I just asked lots of questions. I've always faced life that way, once I know where it is going I stop worrying about it and just work on answers. I worry about the stuff I don't know about!

Dying doesn't scare me. Getting ground up by the medical and insurance industries does. Except for the boat I am pretty frugal. Our house is paid off, we put our daughter through college, paid cash for two used cars, have no credit card debt, and my wife quit her job to take care of our grandson 7 years ago. My insurance is tied to my job, lose my job I lose my insurance. So it all could change real fast now.

My best friend 20 years ago got brain cancer. At the time he was 45 and competing in bodybuilding competitions. The last time I saw him he was 100 lbs and wasting away. I went out of town on business and he killed himself the day I came home. That invalidated his life insurance and his wife got stuck with the all the medical bills not covered by insurance, and lost her house. A couple of years later I took my dog to the vet to be put down. He'd been on heart medication for four years, but it wasn't working any more and he was drowning in his own fluids and coughing terribly. I held him in my arms while the vet gave him the injection. He closed his eyes like he was going to sleep and went limp. My immediate thought was "My god, we treat out pets better than we do any human!"

Gary H. Lucas

[LakeSuperiorGeezer]

Originally Posted by GaryHLucas

I just got a bad diagnosis of prostate cancer, and it looks like I'll be getting treated over the winter and into the spring.
Gary H. Lucas

Consider a second pathology opinion. I was told I had prostate cancer and it was really poorly differentiated PIN cells, not cancer. Pathologists make this mistake 3% to 5% of the time.

[GaryHLucas]

That's really interesting, and I know how often doctors screw up, I've watched it over the years with my dad, stroke, seizures, pace maker, heart valve, broken hip, still goes to work every day they can use him at 82!

Thanks,

Gary H. Lucas

[chef2sail]

Gary,

Talk to Dave at Silver Cloud maina in Forked River. They did some repair work for me and have a list of good craftsman.

Good luck on your treatments. Godspeed.

dave

[newhaul]

Gary i second the second opinion my dad is a survivor of prostate cancer no signs in 15 yrs. now hes 86 now and still loves to sail. you are in my prayers rob read my sig.

[GaryHLucas]

Originally Posted by chef2sail

Gary,

Talk to Dave at Silver Cloud maina in Forked River. They did some repair work for me and have a list of good craftsman.

Good luck on your treatments. Godspeed.

dave

Dave,
Thanks I'll contact them. I have a friend who is a retired cabinet maker and still has a shop. He has offered t o let me use his shop to finish up all the interior pieces that need to go back in this winter. So that will allow me to supply whoever I can hire to actually work on the boat, the finished pieces that need to be installed. Should keep my costs down quite a bit. I also have a coworker willing to help me with some of the remaining exterior work like peeling off the old bottom paint that failed miserably.

Gary H. Lucas

[GaryHLucas]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Gary i second the second opinion my dad is a survivor of prostate cancer no signs in 15 yrs. now hes 86 now and still loves to sail. you are in my prayers rob read my sig.

Thanks, I am looking into the second opinion. I have had the same doctor for about 10 years, but have never actually had to depend on his skill set to do actual repair work. Who knows if he really is competent in that area?

I am a very good electrician, and have done it for a long time. I can count on the fingers of one hand with some left over the electricians I know that are really competent, because I am qualified to judge. Over the years I've been told that so and so is a great electrician, then I see their work and know that it simply isn't true. The recommendations are always from people who aren't qualified to judge. Just because your house didn't burn down yet is no indication of the quality of the work! I am not a doctor, so not qualified to judge doctors. Doctors police themselves. Ever heard of a case where a great doctor actually turns in a hack the AMA to investigate?

Years ago I dated a nurse that worked in a major hospital. When she got a bad ear infection she made an appointment to see a podiatrist (foot doctor). She said all doctors get basically the same training until they specialize, and this doctor was the only one in the hospital that she trusted her own health to. Scary!

Gary H. Lucas

[newhaul]

i know what you mean my mother is a retired arnp i remember the stories she has told of the doc's she has turned in over the years. best of luck to you in all of this keep us here posted on how things are going.
I'm a shipwright just on the wrong ocean.