George Greenhalgh, of Warren, has been building and racing small-scale replicas of East Coast 12-meter yachts for the last 25 of his 79 years.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, July 10, 2006

BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer

WARREN -- Twenty years ago, when George Greenhalgh's garage workshop began overflowing with tools for building his model yachts, he expanded his operation to a spare bedroom.

"My wife told me it was OK, as long as I kept it tidy," says Greenhalgh, a 79-year-old natural-born woodworker who lives in Touisset Point.

"But things tend to creep."

First, it's a new grinder. Then a new jigsaw. Then a drill press and a metal lathe, and more tools, more brass fittings, more fluorescent paints, more epoxies and all his trophies.

And before you can say "Ship Ahoy!" Greenhalgh finds himself awash in boat-building flotsam. And Norma, his wife of 58 years, declares the area off-limits to visitors.

Greenhalgh, a member of the Narragansett Model Yachting Association (Club No. 51 of the American Model Yachting Association), has been building and racing model East Coast 12-meter yachts for 25 years.

His newest EC 12 -- six months in the making -- is 4 feet, 10 inches long with a bright yellow deck, a bright red stern, blue gunwales and 6-foot aluminum masts, a wooden boom, lead keel and a fiberglass hull.

Below deck, Greenhalgh installed batteries and circuits and other mechanics, which respond to a remote control that he operates from shore.

For now, that model EC 12 and two other model yachts are docked on the floor of his enclosed porch. They are all marvels of model scale.

"Basically, we have all the controls you have on a real boat," he says. "We sail by the rules of the big boats.

"After you've been sailing these things for a while, you feel like you're on them. The thrill is the same as a real boat. You have the same feeling when you're catching up on somebody else or the same horror when somebody's catching up on you."

Greenhalgh, who will turn 80 next month, says, "Some guys my age, they don't know what to do with themselves. But I don't have enough time in the day."

GREENHALGH DISCOVERED his knack for woodworking as a youngster. He began with model airplanes.

"We had a hobby store in Pawtucket where I lived, on High Street. I'd go there pretty often. My bedroom ceiling was covered with model airplanes."

Greenhalgh worked in the Pawtucket mill that his grandfather, father and brother operated in succession. (The Greenhalgh Mill burned two years ago.) "I did just about everything at the mill," he says. His main job was quality control.

The future Mrs. Greenhalgh worked as a secretary for Greenhalgh's father; George and Norma met after he returned home from his Army Air Forces tour during World War II.

"I didn't know much about girls then," he says. But he took a look at Norma, and "Wow," he says.

In the earlier years of their marriage, George Greenhalgh raced model airplanes and full-size yachts. Twenty-five years ago, he turned to constructing and racing model yachts.

"Most all of us were model airplane guys. But it's getting harder and harder to sail your model airplanes -- nobody likes the gasoline engines and you're always one step ahead of the cops," who ticket for noise violations.

He joined the NMYA at the invitation of a friend. It is one of about 200 American Model Yachting Association clubs throughout the United States, Canada and the West Indies, from Honolulu to Rocket City, Ala., to Cape Cod and Barbados.

Norma also joined the fun, participating as an official score-keeper. "She's very much in demand," says George.

Though yachts make up the primary part of Greenhalgh's fleet, he builds other boat replicas.

A tugboat named Norma, for instance.

"I did this one from scratch," says Greenhalgh, as he gives a sneak tour of the supposedly off-limits area. "I've got a little searchlight, a horn, radar, a lifeboat with paddles," and little guys in raincoats in the detachable wheelhouse.

The tugboat serves as a "rescue boat" or "chase boat" for his replica yachts, and has a remote-controlled, spring-loaded arm that snags a disabled or distressed boat.

Then, too, there's the 6-foot cruiser, modeled after an actual cruiser his father had owned. It took years to construct.

Norma Greenhalgh, whose 3-D puzzles of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral compete for space with her husband's creations on the porch, points proudly to her spouse's craftsmanship displayed throughout the house.

"Anything that is carved of wood -- these birds, these three dolphins, these ducks," she says, pointing to hanging mobiles, "he did them." That includes, in the curio cabinet, a set of carved wooden men with pipes ("Smoke comes out," says George), that mingle with Norma's collection of miniature elephants.

Last year, George got on a bird kick. A Canada goose, ducks and more ducks.

Says Norma, "He's got like a whole fleet of ducks in front of the Eiffel Tower."

A LITTLE MORE than a week ago, Greenhalgh launched his new boat on her inaugural journey, during a regatta in Mansfield, Conn.

"I was thrilled because it sailed pretty well and with a light breeze it would sail right straight. And I was like, 'Oh boy, it's sailing great.'

"But when a little breeze came up, it would start going upwind," he says. "A lot of guys want to do that -- they want to work upwind and then [turn] without losing speed. But I like my boats to go right straight."

The yet-to-be-named EC 12 "floated right on the lines that we designed it for, the 42-inch waterline. It floated right on there."

The boat placed fourth out of six, which underscores the fact that a sailor's work is never done. Greenhalgh is tuning and tinkering.

"I'm repairing how the boom attaches to the mast. There's a fitting in there and one of the screws tore loose. In order to keep going, I had to tape it together with masking tape.

"I'm going to put the main sail two notches forward, and I already changed my side stays, and I'm putting my jib two notches forward . . . "

Greenhalgh says there are about 20 members in the NMYA, five of whom race their boats every Sunday (except holidays) all summer at Elm Pond in Roger Williams Park.

He admits that he and his racing pals are not so intent on competition.

"I'm really past my prime. I don't expect to win," says Greenhalgh. He also admits that sometimes they sit in lawn chairs rather than race along the water's edge with their remote controls.

"We have a good time. We are a laid-back group."

For the moment, Greenhalgh has no plans to build another boat. He's busy fine-tuning the new one and messing up the workshop.

His entire hand-built fleet numbers between 25 and 30 boats. That includes the steamboat and cruiser, motorboats, a gasoline-powered race boat, a steam-powered launch, a few catamarans and a full-size kayak for his personal use.

And here's a little secret that even Norma Greenhalgh didn't know, until her husband mentioned it to a reporter:

In the hollow of every duck he carves and every yacht and tugboat and donkey or wooden smoker, he tucks a message inside.

What do the messages say?

" 'This was made by an old man in Touisset.' Something like that," Greenhalgh says, chuckling. "Nobody will ever find it."

For more information about the Narragansett Model Yachting Association, contact George Greenhalgh at (401) 245-7493.

kziner@projo.com/(401-351-0982).

Specifications

Model Class: East Coast 12

Dimensions: 58 inches long.

Top speed: Six miles per hour.

Draws: No more than 7 7/8 inches of water.

Hull: Regulation (set by American Model Yachting Association)

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