Runabout Reflections
Cotati is about 40 miles north of San Francisco on Hwy 101 North. As you can see, this town is not exactly "the seaport of the Western World," but it is home to a great number of water-craft businesses, including Runabout Reflections.
The nearest water is in Lake Sonoma, some miles distant from Cotati, but it happens that it isn't always necessary to water-test a boat; it is just as possible to perform a "driveway sea-trial" of a boat, by rolling it out of the shop and running water through the engine with a garden hose.
The need for acutal water-testing of the boats restored at Runabout Reflections is eliminated by Roy Domke's experience with installing cold-molded "West System" bottoms on these beautiful old boats. With the technology and epoxies available today, these boats can be made effectively water-tight. Such a development will come as a relief to anyone who has spent hours (and many gallons of water) soaking their boat to swell the bottom planks together, before ever getting to take it out on the lake.
To learn more about the process of installing a "West System" bottom (and to see what it looks like as it's put together), you can check out the section of the restoration text which covers this topic directly, or you can