I'm really sad to hear that. Paul was always happy to offer his experience to help those of us who haven't slopped as much goo as he has. My heart goes out to his family and friends.
I never met Paul, but like Robert the Tiger I am reminded of the community we have here. I've long considered these forums to be the friendliest place on the internet thanks to Frank and his one rule (be nice) and to the people who enjoy helping each other and just talking about boats and other related matters (dogs, brides, grandkids, motorcycles, blah blah blah). I've also thought that we all have a funny kind of community, though, because there are a lot of unknown lives going on behind all these discussions.
I've recognized forum contributors in passing just by their boats. I passed Scott and his beautiful yellow Belhaven on Highway 40 once in North Carolina and I recognized him instantly just because he posted the first pictures of his yellow paint job immediately after I bought my yellow paint for Southbound (Aargh!) But even though his boat allowed me to recognize him at a combined closing speed of 130mph (113 knots or 208kph), I could easily have walked past him in a store or something without ever knowing who he was.
Actually, I had that happen too. I was at lumber reseller once looking for a nice piece of hardwood to make something or other (maybe the banjo?) and there was a couple who seemed to be buying every piece of mahogany in the place. It struck me as funny at the time but a few days later when I checked up on a build I was following (a powerboat way up on Highway 321) they mentioned having bought pretty near all the mahogany in the Piedmont for their project. So although I had been following their build avidly I had no clue who they were when I walked right past them.
Like Robert, I've lost someone in the last couple of weeks and in that context it's strange (to me anyway) how hard it is to hear that Paul, who I never met, is gone.
If you look at the sheer word count of my post I think there will be an indicator of what we've lost. Paul would have written this many words about one specific aspect of one part of boat building and at the end of it we'd all know the implications of (x) to the final whatever-it-was. Meanwhile I've used the same number of words to ramble aimlessly and haven't helped anyone advance their project by the slightest skerrick of a suggestion of progress.
Raising a glass to you, Paul.
Ken