Building Kathy Ann By Robert “Buzz” Johnson
Review by Deborah K Frontiera
ISBN: 979-8-8956-054-8 Modern History Press, 2025, PB Ret. $21.95
If you’ve never thought about how much is involved in building a boat from the keel up, you will more than appreciate the many technical skills involved by the time you finish reading Building Kathy Ann: My Lake Superior Boat Project. Robert “Buzz” Johnson begins by telling his readers portions of his own life that led to his decision to build his own boat. These experiences include such things as helping his carpenter father, making a Soap Box Derby car, the skills taught to every boy of Finnish ancestry since the dawn of time, working on the family farm, watching his grandfather do smith work making Finnish knives … taking a course in architectural drawing at Ferris State College, working as a draftsman in the army … And always, there were boats. First there was a twelve-foot plywood boat, then a fourteen-foot Cruisers, followed by a seventeen-foot Thompson Tomby. Buzz talks about “two-foot-itis” as well: once you get a boat, you keep wanting one that is two feet bigger, and bigger and …
On page 22 he states:
“The twinkle of an idea for a boat which became the Kathy Ann started years ago. The dream morphed as time progressed from finding an old steel “fish tug” and fixing it up, to acquiring a used trawler, many of which were available in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. Finally, I realized that I had the ability to build a trawler from scratch rather than buy a fixer-upper.” So, of course, he began to study all the aspects needed to build exactly the kind of boat he wanted: from a steel hull thirty-six to forty feet long for maximum hull speed, to enclosed accommodation for passages on cold Lake Superior, to fuel efficiency.
But there was the job of convincing his wife Kathleen that the project was not only good but doable! (This reviewer wonders if the name of the boat had something to do with that.) Not that he didn’t have plenty of friends and family ready to help: a friend who gave him his old RV from which he salvaged things for the boat’s interior cabin; his father-in-law who was a navy veteran of three wars, friends who knew electrical engineering, mechanical engineering … But there were things to overcome: Kathleen had in mind a rowboat, and Buzz was thinking the project would be complete in two years.
A Little Visitor to Provide a Welcome Break from Sheathing the Cabin
This reviewer has a husband who sometimes becomes obsessed with building things (not boats, but desks for his daughters and toyboxes that were really hope chests for his grandkids) so, I found myself wondering how many times Buzz’s wife muttered under her breath, “That blanketly-blank-blank boat!” during the way-more-than-two years it took to complete the Kathy Ann.
The first winter of the project ended up being many, many, many hours of work with not much to show for it as Buzz, his sons and other helpers worked out highly detailed plans, patterns … things this writer has absolutely no knowledge of … but that Buzz manages to make understand able, not just boring technical stuff. All you who dream of doing this, pull off your rose-colored glasses; it’s a lot more work than you think it will be! And if things don’t fit exactly right, there will be hell to pay later. Way out of my league, and I gained a great appreciation for what goes into any boat, tiny house, etc.
Chapters four through seven give great details of the process. The steel hull was, of course, the most detailed. The framework to build the hull was a project all by itself. So was the equipment to turn the boat right side up when the hull was complete. And then getting it so that some important systems, electric lines, fuel lines and other problems were “not impossibly stuck in places.” Tiny details can make or break an electrical or mechanical system. Especially when one must keep safety in mind—like being sure that an electrical system does not come too close to the propane line to the stove. Safety above all else!
Just when you think you are done, you find that is not so. Shakedown cruises find all the problems that must be solved before you can get insurance. A system you thought was perfect reveals its flaw. On and on, never ending, always improving. Full color photos throughout the book and intricate diagrams of Kathy Ann’s design put the reader right in the action.
While some readers might think that the main takeaway from Building Kathy Ann: My Lake Superior Boat Project is to NOT build your own boat, that’s not the lesson here. Even a landlubber will learn a lot by reading this book. The real thing is to see the tenacity of people in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that keep them determined to complete a project—what the Finns call sisu!
Building Kathy Ann By Robert “Buzz” Johnson
ISBN: 979-8-8956-054-8 Modern History Press, 2025, PB Ret. $21.95
Author Robert Johnson stands on the deck with the Isle Royal lighthouse behind
