April 15, 2004

Boating is a life preserver for handyman Stan Rhamy

By Jeanne C. Lewis
Staff Writer

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.” The same thing could be said about Stan Rhamy who built not one boat, but two, modifying the second to fit his specific needs.

Rhamy completed the boat in three months in between working his own handyman business Almaden Home Services where he specializes in fences, drywall, painting, kitchens and floors “where no job is too small.”
“I built this boat with nothing but a coping saw, Swiss army knife and a piece of sandpaper,” the quick-witted Rhamy said about the Gen-L Marine wood boat he built from plans and named “Home Brew.”

Once the boat was built, there were other needs: a place to store it and something to haul it in. So Rhamy built those, too. He designed a ceiling hoist system above his wife’s car to store the boat, not wanting it to be exposed to the elements. Of course, at first his wife had some reservations. “Not above my Lincoln,” Roma, Rhamy’s wife of 40 years laughed. “What if there’s an earthquake?”

Rhamy prevailed and now has a nifty system of warehousing the boat and there have been no accidents. Within minutes, the boat is safely hoisted down from the storage and rests on the customized trailer he built for it.
“Dad can build anything he sets his mind to,” Caprice, Rhamy’s daughter said.

“I can make a rocket out of a match stick,” Rhamy laughs. “I find building anything very therapeutic,” he added on a more serious note.

Rhamy’s love of building came early. When he was a young boy in Palo Alto, he made a crystal set complete with headphones with no batteries that allowed him to listen to KGO radio. His father built each home the family lived in and Rhamy became his number-one helper.

He served in the U.S. Navy for over eight years and seriously thought of becoming a career man. Married, the young couple decided the long stints apart would be too difficult with the addition of the children, a boy and a girl. He worked at Xerox and Signetics working his way up the corporate ladder to senior engineer manager at National Semiconductor. The family moved to Almaden in 1978. In 1984, National Semiconductor began a four-day work week. With the additional day off, Rhamy constructed his first boat, “Wan’na Be—A Bigger Boat.”

When Stan isn’t building something, his other passion is fishing. Silver Lake, Caples Lake, Antelope Reservoir and Calero Reservoir have all seen the likes of “Home Brew.”

An avid skier, he enjoys winter trips to Heavenly, Squaw Valley and Kirkwood with his family.
For more information on Almaden Home Services or to talk about boats and fishing, call Stan at 268-1892 or e-mail srhamy@ix.netcom.com.