Retired and bored, Earl Rentmeester of Green Bay, Wis., built a boat — a 50-foot ocean-rated sailing yacht — from scratch.
The 64-year-old retired general contractor who spent his life building upscale homes and commercial construction decided he wanted to build something for himself. Rentmeester had never been on a sailboat, knew nothing about building a boat and depended on information from the 50-plus boatbuilding books in his collection and information on the Internet
Rentmeester and wife, Mary, will spend all summer learning the ins and outs of sailing in preparation for a trip on the Great Lakes next summer and sailing in the Caribbean in fall 2013.
