Leslee and Andrew Fiveland with their boat, The Samuel Fiveland
*Photo by Katherine Massopust

By: Carolyn Maxwell & Katherine Massopust

PERTH AMBOY – Recently the Amboy Guardian met Andrew and Leslee Fiveland at the Raritan Yacht Club in Perth Amboy. They sat down with the Amboy Guardian for an interview.

Andrew has the distinction of being someone who built his own boat from scratch. The boat, which he named after his Grandfather, The Samuel Fiveland was moored in Raritan Bay at the Yacht Club. 

Andrew and Leslee told us their story:

Andrew Fiveland was born in Orange, New Jersey to Arthur and Gladys Fiveland. Andrew grew up in Manasquan, New Jersey. “I taught myself to sail. I love Clipper Ships and always was fixing up boats since age 12. In my mid-20’s to late 20’s I was looking toward a goal. I wanted to build my own boat and get girls and sail around the world. I didn’t want to do what anyone else was doing. I wanted to see the world. I had no idea what I was getting into. To achieve a goal, one must invest time, money, or both. Life got in the middle of the project, we got married, and we adopted a son, Daniel.”

Their son, Daniel is now 28 years old and serves in the Marine Air National Guard. “He’s a focused, mature person. He loves motorboats and knows how to sail.”

Leslee was born in Manhattan but grew up in Pittsburgh.  She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia and was a librarian in Princeton Theological Seminary Library, a Ministry for the Presbyterian Church in Princeton. “I was a Spanish major in college,” Leslee states. She worked for two South American Companies in the 1970’s for Chile in the World Trade Center.” She became a Spanish Teacher when she moved to Maine.

Leslee is a real good sailor, learning to sail from her first husband’s father who was a member of the Yacht Club in the 1960’s. In 1981, Leslee’s first husband, David Heal died. “There’s a trophy downstairs with his name on it.” Leslee continued, “The Yacht Club Members have always been a friendly group. The people here were a huge support for me. I was crewing on other people’s boats. In 1983, there was a Boat Race with a friend, Nelson Macan and early residents of Bayside Villa. I was working in the area. Nelson said that he wanted me to meet someone. He introduced me to Andrew here (at the Yacht Club) and we proceeded to talk. Our first date was at the Harbor Lights Restaurant (in Perth Amboy). Things are a lot different here than 30 years ago. Perth Amboy has come a long way.”

Andrew has a twin brother, who lives in Perth Amboy, and a younger sister.

Andrew spoke about the first boat he ever built. “The first boat I built was a plywood kayak. I didn’t finish it.”  Andrew’s Father, Arthur served in the Army Air Corps. He firmly believed a person should finish what they start. “My father said if you’re not going to finish it, you have to get rid of it. I cut it up, because I didn’t finish it. I was 13 years old. I made a promise to finish anything else I started.”

When Andrew began building his boat, he got the accessories first. He is a great fan of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics Magazines. He learned a lot from those magazines.

The laying of a keel is often the first step in building a boat. In 1979, Andrew laid the keel of his boat. “When building a boat, you have to figure out how to do things. It took a lot of years. There were a lot of years I did nothing on it. We built a house in Maine and built the boat in a Pole Barn (a giant garage that is really tall with a roof, but no sides (similar to a car port)). I started working as a pipefitter in Jersey, then went to Maine. The Boat took 38 years to build, but it was built from scratch.”

The boat includes a main cabin, galley, head, aft cabin, and an engine room. It fits 6 comfortably. It’s a big boat: 53’ long and 16’ wide. The draft is 7’. “It’s a very seaworthy, heavy boat. It’s made of steel. There are 18,000 lbs. of lead in the keel. The motor has a diesel engine. The sails are 1250 sqft. made out of Dacron (a type of synthetic cloth used for ship sails and ropes). It sails comfortably from 15 to 20 knots of wind.”

When asked how the boat handles storms, both Andrew and Leslee smiled, “We get our gear on when we know it’s going to rain. We have harnesses with a hook to a red jack line,” Leslee explained.

The boat has a one-person navigation system, and you need a helmsman to steer the boat. “Mike Magee was the ship’s carpenter. We go way back. He helped with the woodwork and Andrew did the metalwork. Mike is a very experienced carpenter,” said Leslee.

When the boat was nearing completion, Andrew said to himself, “This is a serious project. I spent more than half my life building this boat. My father built a sailboat out of wood and named it a real name. I asked myself: “What should I name this boat?”  I decided I should name it after my grandfather. It felt right to name it after him.”

Andrew’s Grandfather, Samuel Fiveland was a Norwegian Sailor who served in the Norwegian Navy during WWI. Samuel was in a boat when it was torpedoed by the Germans. The crew were put on lifeboats going to Italy. The Italians rescued them, and he managed to make it back to Norway. In 1922, Samuel came to Ellis Island with his wife, Tobine.

The Samuel Fiveland was launched on August 11, 2017. Andrew and Leslee both enjoy living on the boat. The couple have plans to go back to Maine with intentions of making four different improvements that need to be made on the boat. The couple always wanted to sail in New York Harbor, and recently did so. Andrew plans to visit the Caribbean but is waiting for winter to come to make the trip. He also wishes to see the Panama Canal and Ireland. 

Andrew stated that on his travels he has seen marine life such as dolphins who swim around in circles. “They’re a lot larger than you think they are. I saw an osprey in Chesapeake Bay.”

Leslee stated that one of the things she really enjoys about traveling is meeting interesting people all over the world. “I enjoy hearing all the different stories of how they got into boating,” Leslee states.

“It’s always an adventure, just a little different than I expected,” states Andrew.

The Amboy Guardian wishes to thank Barry Rosengarten for introducing us to this lovely couple.