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The 28-foot Bartender wooden boat parked in Dick Pepper's garage in Laurel Valley has caused a few of his friends to ponder the future. After all, Pepper has been building the boat, which weighs close to 6,000 pounds, since 2003, finishing it up only this week.

"They have asked me if I know something they don't," said Pepper the day after he put on the finishing touches. "They are calling it Pepper's Ark."

This retired Delta pilot and Navy veteran said his reason for building the boat is more about his love of the water and desire to be challenged, and that he was. He spent six days a week, eight or so hours a day for the past couple of years, getting this seaworthy vessel ready for its first adventure. The boat is called a Bartender because it was designed to go out across the Columbia River Bar that runs between Oregon and Washington.

There on the cover of Wooden Boat magazine years ago was one of those Bartender boats. It caught his eye, Pepper said. "I told myself, 'I think I can build one of those.'"

Pepper's Ark got its start back in 2002 when Pepper drove his Airstream motor home across the Rocky Mountains and into Washington to attend the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building. For six months, he worked alongside the other 17 students to become expert boat builders. The others in the class, Pepper said, were 20-somethings who were starting careers in the boat repair or building business.

"I was the only one on Medicare," he said with a laugh.

Becoming an expert

Pepper, who turns 72 Friday, commissioned the boat building school to build the hull and install the gas-powered motor. He and three other students along with the instructor accomplished that task. The boat was then towed back from Washington to Laurel Valley. Pepper had a builder construct the garage for it at his home in 2006 and he had been working on it since.

The hull is made from okume plywood covered in fiberglass and two coats of epoxy. It has a unique hull design, the builder pointed out. There are no transoms. Instead the Bartender has pointed ends which allow the boat to break waves from both the front and rear.

There was only a slight problem with the plans, however. They only gave directions on how to build the hull, and Pepper was left designing the rest. He had to figure out the dimensions and placement of the cabin's kitchen and bathroom area, windows, electrical system, plumbing, exhaust, etc.

"That required some thinking ahead," he said. "You can't put things where you can't get to it. You have to make it all work."

The interior and frame of the cabin uses lots of mahogany, courtesy of a friend who discovered it in an old warehouse he owned. That saved Pepper some money on the construction. He said the boat on the cover of that magazine cover is very similar to the one he has built. That one had an asking price of $95,000.

Pepper plans to get it out for its maiden voyage soon, perhaps on Lake Lanier in Georgia. That's because this resident of Townsend now has his permanent address in Statham, Ga. He and wife Sara Anne moved out of Laurel Valley Wednesday to be closer to their grandchildren. The couple had resided here since 1997 and Pepper admitted it was a hard decision to make. They will leave some dear friends behind but will keep in touch.

Now that the boat is finished, Pepper looks back at the adventure with pride in the accomplishment and a nagging question in the back of his mind.

"What am I going to do with all this time now?" he pondered. Six days a week that were once filled with designing and building and testing and measuring will now be open for other possibilities.

But don't ask him to build you an ark. That would be a definite no. He's not that bored.