Trawler Lifestyle | PassageMaker Magazine & Events

William Garden, the naval architect and marine engineer, is a romantic, a traditionalist, a perfectionist.

He's a man who cherishes privacy and does not suffer fools.

A skilled shipwright who learned to sail and build boats before he began designing them seven decades ago, Garden loves schooners built of oak and cedar and motor boats whose engines go pockety-pockety-pock and leave barely a ripple as they pass.

So here we are, in a 42-foot fiberglass trawler that leaves a fair wake, needs two engines to get up to speed-and we're botching a landing at his private dock on the tiny British Columbia island where he has worked and lived for more than 30 years.

 Heritage:  Something passed down from generation to generation. It used to be common in boat building, as family-run boat yards built just a handful of boats each year. Today, corporations run many of the boat yards, and mainstream production boats share little with traditional hand-made craft. So it is interesting to see a new vessel that has a family heritage, but built in a large corporate facility...the Solo 43.