Boatbuilding

J-Marie

21 foot Pilothouse. 4 years in the making. Built by hand in a Jersey Shore garage.

“The same obsession that built race cars applied to a hull. Different material, same standard — no shortcuts, no outside help, no compromise.”

Mid 1980s — East Coast Offshore Circuit

Before J-Marie: The Kamikaze

Before Lane was building boats, he was working on them and keeping them running. From clamming on the Barnegat bay to being the firstmate on a shark fishing head boat. Growing up in Barnegat NJ, Life on the water was 2nd nature. The Kamikaze — hull B-33 — was owned and raced by Pat Lauer and her son on the East Coast offshore circuit in the mid-1980s. Lane traveled the circuit with the crew as mechanic and friend.

Offshore racing is brutal on machinery. The job of a race mechanic is to make sure the boat gets to the start line and comes back in one piece. Lane did that up and down the East Coast.

It was the Kamikaze years that put the ocean in his blood. By the time Lane started drawing the J-Marie from plans in 2008, he already understood what boats demand.

2002

It Starts With Plans

The J-Marie started as a set of printed plans for the Pilot 21 — a proven sportfishing hull designed for inshore and nearshore work. Date stamped December 9, 2002. From that moment, the garage floor became a boatyard.

Build material: Hydrotek BS 1063 marine meranti plywood, epoxy sealed and glassed throughout. No shortcuts on the substrate. It had to last.

Named for his wife, Joanne. She helped build it.

Hull Design	Pilot 21 Sportfisher
Construction	Epoxy fiberglass / meranti composite
LOA	21 feet
Power	Yamaha 115 Four-Stroke
Build Time	4 years, garage-built
Named For	Joanne (Joanne Marie) — Lane's wife

The plans. Pilot 21, dated 12/9/02. Where it all began.

Hydrotek BS 1063 marine meranti. The raw material.

Phase 1

Stitch & Glue

Stitch and glue is exactly what it sounds like: panels of marine plywood cut to shape, stitched together with copper wire, then locked in place with epoxy and fiberglass. No molds. No jigs. Just math and patience.

Bow stitched with copper wire. The first real shape.

Fiberglass and epoxy going on. Panels taking form.

Hull inverted on the building cradle. Bottom work begins.

Family names written on wood before glassing

Before the glass goes down: Dominic. Joanne. June 13. Locked in forever.

Orange 88 Mustang and stitched boat hull in same garage

The '88 FastLane and the J-Marie hull — same garage, same builder, same standard. One obsession, two machines.

Phase 2

Building the Hull

Layer after layer of epoxy and fiberglass cloth. Sand. Fair. Repeat. The exterior came together slowly — each coat sealed against moisture, rot, and the ocean.

Epoxy coats building up, layer by layer.

Close-up of fiberglass cloth texture on hull

Fiberglass cloth laid on before wetting out. Every inch covered.

Hull exterior with reddish epoxy, May 2009

Spring 2009 — the hull wearing that reddish epoxy haze. Sand, fair, repeat.

Lane standing next to hull outside, May 2009

Lane and the hull out in the daylight, spring 2009. Finally starting to look like a boat.

Young Dominic standing in front of the hull

Scale check: young Dominic in front of the hull. He's been part of this since the beginning.

Epoxy work continues. The exterior getting closer to fair.

Looking down the faired hull bottom, a Fox Body Mustang poster and American flag on the garage wall

Down the hull bottom mid-fairing. Fox Body poster on the wall — the other obsession was never far away.

Phase 3

Flip Day

Rolling the hull rightside up is one of the biggest moments in any home build. A chain hoist, careful rigging, and no room for error. Get it wrong once and the work is on the floor.

Chain hoist doing the work. Lane on the lines.

Upright on the rolling cradle. Ready for interior work.

Bow lines in primer. The Pilot 21 design showing clean and true.

Hull in gray primer with Kawasaki in garage

Gray primer coat on the hull. The garage stays a garage.

Orange 88 Mustang and gray J-Marie hull together in garage

The garage in one frame: orange '88 FastLane and the J-Marie hull in gray primer. Two builds. One builder. One garage.

Phase 4

Interior & Systems

With the hull upright, the real work begins. Stringers, bulkheads, deck framing, fuel tank, wiring — every system planned and installed from scratch.

Interior framing with stringers and frames

Stringers and frames going in. The bones of the boat.

Interior framing complete with all bulkheads

All bulkheads in. Interior architecture set.

Fuel tank going in. No room for error here.

Deck framing clamped and epoxied. Another layer locked in.

Young Dominic standing in the hull during build

Young Dominic in the hull. He's been part of this since day one.

Bud Light on raw wooden deck during build

A Bud Light on the raw deck. The real measure of progress.

Phase 5

Cabin & Hardware

The wheelhouse went up piece by piece — cabin sides, roof, windshield frames, steering gear fabricated in-shop. Every clamp a small victory. The boat is named for Joanne. She helped build it.

Cabin frame going up. The profile of the Pilot 21 taking shape.

Hull with cabin, dozens of clamps on gunwale

Gunwale clamped. Dozens of clamps, every one necessary.

Cabin windshield and window frames raw wood

Windshield and window openings fitted in raw wood.

Joanne Palmer working on the boat in the garage

Joanne — the woman the J-Marie is named for, putting in hours on the boat named after her.

Steering wheel being built and assembled

Steering wheel — fabricated from scratch in the shop.

Livewell and fishbox gelcoated. This is a fishing boat.

Rod holders on the cabin top. The fishing gear goes in.

Joanne cutting the blue canvas cover at the workbench, racing stickers on the toolbox behind her

Joanne cutting the canvas cover at the bench — racing stickers on the toolbox behind her. This was always a family project.

Phase 6

Paint & Finish

The white hull became a sportfishing boat the day the navy blue went on. Topside white, hull sides deep cobalt — the look of the J-Marie came together fast once the rollers came out.

White hull with beautiful curves and American flag

White hull. Beautiful lines. The American flag in the background.

Interior nearly complete with seats and steering wheel

Interior fitted — seats, wheel, console. Almost ready.

Lane rolling navy blue paint onto the hull

Lane rolling on the navy blue. Four years of work coming home.

Blue paint complete with blue tape on waterline

Two-tone done. Blue tape on the waterline stripe.

Finished J-Marie in blue and white in the garage

J-Marie in blue and white — finished and ready to come out of the garage.

The Moment

Out of the Garage

Four years in one garage. The J-Marie filled it so completely that getting her out required the same careful rigging as the hull flip. A 21-foot sportfishing boat does not leave quietly.

The J-Marie cabin top clearing the garage door opening by inches

The cabin top clearing the door by inches. It fit — barely. That was not luck, that was measured.

J-Marie bow filling the garage door opening

The bow out the door. Four years of work sees daylight.

J-Marie fully out of the garage on timber in the driveway

Out. Blue and white in the sun. The garage held her long enough.

J-Marie on the Load Rite trailer in the driveway

On the Load Rite trailer. The garage door behind her for the last time.

Launch Day

She Goes In The Water

Four years from plans to launch. The J-Marie went into the water with her name in gold on the hull — a sportfishing boat built the hard way, by one guy in a New Jersey garage.

J-Marie on travel lift at launch with name on hull

J-Marie on the travel lift. “J-Marie” in gold on the hull. This is launch day.

Finished J-Marie navy blue and white on trailer

Navy blue and white on the trailer. The finished boat.

Yamaha 115 four-stroke on the finished boat

Yamaha 115 four-stroke. On the water where she belongs.

Aerial drone shot of J-Marie on trailer with American flag

On The Water

What It Was Built For

Fluke. Blues. Sunrises before the ramp fills up. The J-Marie has been doing her job since launch — and Dominic has been fishing off her stern since he was old enough to hold a rod.