: No touching the boats.

Good point. For those unfamiliar with the Connecticut regulatory system, you should know that you must first get a boat-toucher license before you are permitted to touch boats. To qualify you must either be grandfathered in as a professional boat-toucher before September 21, 1986 , have been licensed in a state with licensing reciprocity, have completed building a wooden boat in the past 14.379 years, or pass a qualifying test.

The test to get a boat-touchers license in Connecticut is pretty tough. It is 39 pages and involves 4.7 hours of hands-on work. Then comes the oral test where you must identify the type, builder and port of origin of 3 boats by their taste.

Readers who have been hanging around this board may be able to con the regulator into giving out an interim "Boat-Toucher in Training" license until they get in all the paperwork and take the test. The 6 month waiting period makes it too late to get the full license before the event.

If you qualify for the license by one of the other criteria, but have not received your Connecticut license yet, be sure to bring proper documentation or a sample of your work as there might be regulatory inspectors at the event. The fine for unlicensed boat-touching is too severe to discribe on this bulletin board.