Buoyant Spirits

First it was race cars, then a Harley Davidson. Bill McPherson built them all himself, mostly because he just felt like it. Then he got the itch to build a boat, so he went and did that too.

On Friday, five years of splinters and painstaking, backbreaking labor yielded 7,000 pounds of nautical craftsmanship named Sweet Thang--McPherson’s pet name for his wife, Linda.

McPherson was so focused on the pieces during construction he could only imagine what his creation would look like. He got his first full look at the trawler Friday, when it was hoisted by an 80-ton crane from the backyard where he built it to a flatbed trailer, which delivered the boat to its watery new home in Alamitos Bay.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’ll be dipped. I really did build it,’ ” McPherson said, the smell of sweet tobacco wafting from his pipe, his delivery a gravely Texas drawl. To say the spectacle made him proud would be an understatement: “It was a wonder my shirt didn’t split open, my chest swelled up so much.”

The sight of an airborne boat drew an audience of family, friends, neighbors and looky-loos, and also provided some suspense early Friday. At one point, Sweet Thang came close to touching a 40,000-volt power line.

McPherson’s plan is to place Sweet Thang aboard a cargo ship to the Mediterranean, where he and his wife will meet it. They plan to visit the Greek isles and Gibraltar, then move on to a European tour, via the Danube River.

“It’s been a dream all my life to do something like this,” McPherson said. “Most people just dream about doing something like this, but I’m one of the few who have actually gone and done it.”

A construction electrician by trade, McPherson, 55, built every inch of the boat solo, save the upholstery, the carpeting and the turquoise-colored curtains. The trawler is 30 feet long and 8 feet wide. The interior cabin is lined with polished oak and detailed with shiny brass hardware.

Details from older ships were incorporated into the boat’s design, including a clock from a World War II destroyer and a 50-year-old spotlight.

This being the first boat he’s built, McPherson consulted books for instruction, then asked a nautical architect to draft the plans for a 1940s-style trawler. He expected it would take him $40,000 and five years. He finished 6 months later than planned and $3,000 over budget.

The construction’s aftermath is still visible in the couple’s backyard. A wood fence was knocked over to make way for the boat. A fiberglass shell lies in the grass. A white dinghy sits on a workbench.

McPherson said he isn’t worried about potential perils during their European vacation.

“If anything goes wrong with the boat, I can fix it, ‘cause I built it,” he said confidently. The boat has also passed safety standards and inspections.

*

After some globe trotting, the couple will likely settle down in Mobile, Ala., or somewhere along the Gulf Coast in the South, a place he considers to have the “friendliest people in the world.” There, he is thinking about running a boat yard, and perhaps his 55-year-old wife will practice her profession--family counseling.

McPherson said he probably won’t build another boat, but he also doesn’t see himself letting go of his knack for creating things.

“This is therapy for me, it takes care of all the stress and aggravation,” he said. “I build what suits me.”

Jim Marsh, who for more than 20 years has been familiar with McPherson’s style and spirit, said he traveled from Colorado to witness the unveiling of the boat and to see his friend’s pride finally sitting in the water.

“The only question always is: ‘What’s he gonna do next?’ ” Marsh said.

“An airplane. I’ve never built an airplane,” McPherson answered, looking skyward as he sat on the edge of his trawler. “An old World War II biplane, now that would be nice.”