A Man Takes His Dreamboat to Sea : ‘Crazy Fella’ Who Spent 20 Years Building a Boat in His Back Yard Ready to Set Sail

SANTA ANA HEIGHTS —  Twenty years ago, Leonard James saw the good life in nearby Newport Beach and decided that’s where he belonged.

After two decades of labor, James succeeded Thursday: the 45-foot boat he began building in his back yard in 1971 was finally ready for the ocean.

With the help of a 150-ton crane, the 31,000-pound boat was hoisted up and over James’ single-story house and onto a trailer that took it safely to its new home in Newport Bay. The moving process took five hours--longer than expected--so the maiden voyage of the Connilen was delayed until today .

But that didn’t dampen the spirits of the more than 75 neighbors, relatives and friends who gathered at James’ home Thursday to watch the boat be lifted from his back yard.

“I wouldn’t have missed this for anything,” said Kenneth Bavry, who lives across the street and helped bring the boat’s keel into James’ yard in 1970. “I’ve watched that boat be built from the bottom up. I’ve been waiting for 20 years,but it’s worth it because that boat is beautiful and meticulous. It is perfect.”

James said he never expected to take 20 years to build the Connilen, a name derived from a combination of his first name and that of his wife, Connie.

“I figured the boat would take three or four years to build,” said James, a 56-year-old cabinetmaker. “I worked on it constantly, but it became a larger project than I anticipated. But I never thought about giving up.”

Connie James said she was proud of her husband for finishing the boat, which at times dominated their lives.

“He’s so excited and he should be,” she said. “But there were times when I felt like striking a match to the thing. But for one man to do this is incredible. It’s taken so long, and I’m so glad it’s finally finished.”

The 16-ton boat cost about $150,000 to build and another $20,000 to move. James and his wife said this meant several loans, few vacations, and a lot of sacrifice.

“Believe me, the whole thing has worn very thin more than a few times,” James said.

Described as a perfectionist by all who know him, James spent much of the first 10 years building the outside of the boat from apotang, white oak and red mahogany. He spent the later years building the inside, which consists of a stateroom, two restrooms, a galley, a full-size shower and finely detailed cabinets.

“He’s a master craftsman,” said Ted Jonan, a high school friend. “About the only thing he didn’t build on that boat was the windows.”

Donald James, the couple’s 30-year-old son, was 10 when his father began building the boat. For him, the boat was a memorable part of his childhood.

“It’s just always been here,” he said. “My friends and I used to play on it all the time. We’d bring our fishing poles and pretend we were fishing. It makes me really proud to see that he’s finished and that he will finally be able to enjoy the benefits of all his hard work.”

Leonard James Sr., 91, traveled from his home in Yucaipa to witness the event. He said word of his son’s boat has spread to unexpected places through the years.

“A neighbor of mine told me he was very familiar with the area where my son lives because he has a relative in the area,” he said. “The relative told him about some crazy fella who was building a boat in his back yard. I laughed and told him that I might know who that fella was.”

The boat was often the talk of the close-knit neighborhood in an unincorporated area bordered by Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

“When he first started, we asked him if he was building Noah’s Ark,” said next-door neighbor Celia Tuz, who watched the move with a camera in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other.

“He took a lot of ribbing at first. But he always worked on it, and we all figured that someday he would get it done,” Tuz said.

Stella Askew sat in her driveway during all the commotion, fiddling with a video camera. She was trying to record the event for her husband, Eric, who was off on a ski trip.

“I was told that I had to get this on film because this is something my husband is very interested in,” Askew said. “He helped to paint on the name of the boat so he’s got a little finger in the pie.”

Jonathan Scott, 34, bought the house next door to the Jameses two years ago and said the boat has always been a great conversation piece.

“I’m very excited to see all his hard work culminate in a day like this,” Scott said. “I wish that when people sitting out at the Reuben E. Lee (restaurant in Newport Bay) see this boat, that they could somehow know that one man spent 20 years building it.”