He Hand-Built a 62-Foot Boat in His Yard Since 1987. Now Comes the Hill

Most front yards in Mineral Wells, Texas, hold a lawn and maybe a truck. Dale’s holds a 62-foot steel boat that he has been building by hand since 1987.¹

Dale is 86 now, and the boat is about 75% finished. He can’t keep building it at his age, and there is a second problem: a steep hill sits between the boat and the road. That means heavy machinery is needed to get it down.¹²

Thousands of dollars from strangers may change that. A GoFundMe campaign started on Oct. 17, 2026, aims to finish the boat, haul it down the hill and get it to a launch site, though the full plan and its costs are still being confirmed with Dale’s family.¹

An unannounced visit

The story comes from Laurence Benson, a content creator and one of three English men working in Texas who went to meet Dale. Benson says a friend named Kiah spotted the boat while in Mineral Wells for work. Benson and two friends, Benjie and Will, then drove about an hour and a half from Fort Worth and showed up unannounced.¹

Benjie talked with Dale’s wife at the door. During the visit, Dale climbed the ladder to show the visitors the deck, something he hadn’t done in years.¹²

“He’s as passionate now as he was 40 years ago,” Benson wrote on the fundraiser page.¹

Good News Network, which based its article on Benson’s material, reports that the boat has four staterooms and that Dale started it intending to sail it to Alaska.² The first leg of that trip is the hill.

Where the money stands

Benson posted a video about the visit and set up the fundraiser. The fundraiser page most recently showed $44,734 raised toward a $50,000 goal from about 1,640 donors, with donations paused.¹

Earlier tallies were lower. On TikTok, Benson said more than 1,300 people had given over $36,000, and that many others had offered to help.³ Good News Network reported more than $41,000 from over 1,500 donors toward a $45,000 goal.²

The $50,000 is labeled “stage one.” It is meant to cover finishing work, the heavy machinery to bring the boat down the hill, and transport to the water.¹

The fundraiser lists Dale as the beneficiary and says none of the money goes to the organizers.¹

The hard part is still ahead

So far, the help has come as donations. No machinery or moving work has been reported yet, and the boat’s condition and seaworthiness have not been verified. Moving a large steel hull off a hilltop yard is a real job.

The fundraiser asks anyone near Mineral Wells who runs a boatyard, a haulage company or a crane hire business, and who can help, to get in touch.¹

All of the coverage so far traces back to Benson’s own fundraiser, videos and social posts. Other outlets have retold his account without adding reporting of their own.

What Dale wants fits in one sentence. “His dream is to see her on the water,” Benson wrote.¹