Ralph Stanley Retiring

[Ethan]

Caught this article (http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Ralph-Stanley-legendary-Maine-boatbuilder-hands-off-business-to-his-son/13037/) while googling some stuff...

Had a chance to talk with him at the WBS last year during his book signing. What a nice, quiet spoken guy. So much talent in such a humble man. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Any of our Maine members have good Ralph stories to share?

EDIT: Aww, heck. Just realized the article is from April. Welll......would still appreciate any good Ralph stories! Or, let's just watch the bubbles as this thread sinks......

[goodbasil]

What's the name of the book?

[Ethan]

http://www.woodenboatstore.com/images/300641.jpg (http://www.woodenboatstore.com/images/300641.jpg)

Click the pic for a link to the WB Store....

Neat book. Not a "how to", per se, but an interesting retrospective of his life and boatbuilding.

[Bob Triggs]

"Finest Kind".

[StevenBauer]

Here is a more up to date article about Ralph W. Stanley Inc:

http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/Recession-makes-business-even-tougher-for-waterfront-boatbuilders/13422/





Steven

[Paul Pless]

From the thread title I thought you were talking about The Man of Constant Sorrow at first.

http://www.thebluegrassblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ralph.jpg

[kc8pql]

From the thread title I thought you were talking about The Man of Constant Sorrow at first.

Me too. Must be my southern mountain heritage.

[Pitsligo]

I spoke with Ralph a couple weeks ago, and he's technically been retired for a while now. His elder son, Richard, is fronting the show from here out, and is apparently working on shifting the shop over to Manset. Ralph's doing a lot more with his fiddles and with his local history geneology.

I call him up every so often to chat and get his opinion on something I'm doing to Bucephalus (hull #1 of his 19' sloops), catch up on gossip in the home town, etc. I expect he'll keep his hand in on the water --among the Friendship Sloop Society, anyhow-- but I got the sense he's ready to be done with the business end of the boatbuilding.

Alex

[Chris Coose]

When I moved to MDI we rented a house a stone's throw from Ralph's shop. He'd allow me to hang around some which I did. There were not a lot of yard rats visiting.

We capsized a Hustler in the small pool out front of his shop one afternoon. I beached her and Ralph came rowing out. "I was concerned, as I saw you two with your baby out here earlier in the day."
We'd dropped Jenny to a sitter at lunch time and it was just me and her mom for the capsizing.
"Well, That's good. I figured you could use this bucket." and he rowed back to the shop to climb back into a Friendship rigging.