Bob Fariss was quite a guy, and an Oregon guy through and through. He especially loved the Oregon coast, and that's the setting of many of his stories. He built boats as a hobby, for himself and for friends, and though they were small, he took them out past the three-mile limit every chance he got.

It was a delight to read his letters about "the olden days;" only one or two of them about a time later than 1950. Just slightly edited, they're pretty much as he wrote them, and I hope you take as much pleasure in reading the boatbuilder's tales as I did.