By nature, Hokin was what you would call a "methodical" type, giving just as much attention to the dinner bell that would hang outside the galley as he would to how high the ceiling should be in the engine room.

"Myron was very methodical," Garvey recounts in his blog. "I told Myron he didn't have to worry about the engine room as I was the one that was probably going to be down there. But he insisted, "˜I don't care who's down there. I want headroom.'"

AN UNTIMELY DEATH

To get some advice from true professionals, Hokin ultimately hired George Zahn, a Marine Surveyor and Engineer, and Whitey Laurier, a naval architect.

Once the matter of the title had been cleared up and they were able to get back on board and back to work, things seemed to move quickly. Francis and Wayne Goddard built a wonderful cabin and their impressive woodworking skills could be seen throughout the boat.

ROBERT GARVEYThe Trunk Cabin

ROBERT GARVEYThe Pilot House

"They worked like artists often making the woodwork more detailed than I expected," Garvey writes. "I expected an oak rail with steel stanchions but they built a work of art. It has several courses of oak, copper colored stanchions and hammered brass fasteners."

As in most boat refurbishing projects, the whole process would take a little longer than originally anticipated. At 82 years old and at mid-construction, Hokin's health suddenly began to fail.

Garvey recalls that time: "At 82 he was still one of the most active people I knew. He used every bit of energy he had. On the day he made his final trip to the hospital he had a difficult time deciding whether he should go to the hospital or out to Comiskey Park and enjoy the ball game. He reluctantly chose the hospital and shortly thereafter slipped away."

Suddenly without their captain, the family needed to take a break and figure out what to do.

"His passing gave us pause," says Garvey in his blog. "We were more than half way through the project and after much debate the consensus was to finish the boat. Besides, he'd probably come back and kick me if I didn't."

BACK TO SEA

So, the cabins were completed, the rooms were framed and paneled, and almost everything was checked off the list. A few details remained, such as who would finish the interior, who would design the furniture, and who would fix an ongoing problem regarding the trunk cabin layout. To stay on track, they sought out the people who could finally get the job done.

A man by the name of Clinton Midgett happened into the crew's life just at the right time and ultimately would be the one capable of finishing the boat project for them.

Garvey said he will never forget that meeting.

"He put so many good ideas on the table in our first conversation that I knew we had found our closer," Garvey says in his blog. "Clinton had a yard down in Virginia and off we went. He solved the trunk cabin layout problem in 10 minutes. I had wanted separate crew and passenger quarters and couldn't find a solution. Clinton built a settee around the main cabin, which functioned as headroom for the crew, deck lockers and bench seating and that left the entire trunk cabin for passengers. Perfect. Clinton brought on a crew of six and worked all summer."

With so many changes, the boat was virtually new, so it was decided a new name was appropriate before the launch. Garvey's father-in-law proposed the name Oyster Catcher. That particular bird species is seen regularly in the Chesapeake Bay area and the Connie Francis had been a skipjack used to catch oysters once upon a time.

Hokin no doubt would be proud.

"He missed not having a boat," Garvey writes in his blog. "But he never gave up. Many nights when Dana and I visited her grandparents for dinner he would look out the window and gaze down at the docks. "˜Boy it sure would be nice to have the boat down there tonight,' he would say."