b'C H A P T E R S E V E NLike Olmsted, Davis had been sailing and racing since boyhood on everything from his first sailing canoe to other peoples ocean-going boats; he came to be a sought-after navigator on races to Bermuda and elsewhere. At six feet eight, he was too tall for World War II service, so, on graduating from Princeton as an engineer, he joined Pan American Airways in West Africa, later transferring to Miami as a flight navigator. Years passed, and he and his wife, Peggy, moved to Chathambecause of the marvelous waters, as he put it. There, they fashioned a custom of sailing their Bristol each fall to the Bahamas. He loved nothing more than passage-making and delighted in planning long voyages. Says his wife, He had enough meticulously numbered charts of waters hed cruised to wallpaper an entire house. He was a superb navigator, and even in the worst of conditions he was never lost.Davis also was a dedicated civic volunteer. Hearing a bit of Olmsteds story, he agreed to help. In their talk, the two resolved to design a chartunder the banner of FCWthat would show all local waterways, from Meeting House Pond in Orleans, on the north, to the tip of Monomoy Islands in the south. To add firepower, the pair invited Harbormaster Peter Ford, marina operator Andy Meincke and fellow boater Lew Kimball to make up a committee with them. The latter three, says Olmsted, advised, critiqued, and edited, while Davis and he handled the engineering.They discovered soon that most chart-makers worked from NOAA data, even though it often was five to ten years out of date.With preparations well advanced, George Olmsted turned contact man. He approached five of the most important chart publishers,four of whom listened courteously, said the market was too small, and politely kicked me out.A touch disheartened, he still had one outfit to go, the one farthest away, Waterproof Charts, in Punta Gorda, Florida. To hisChecking the chart that the late Jim Davis surprise, the tone on the other end ofand he produced, George Olmsted figures the line suddenly turned upbeat. Thethe two of them spent as much as 100 Florida-based cartographer toldhoursas volunteersto do the necessary contact and research work.Gordon ZellnerOlmsted that he was an in-law of EricHilbert, then running Countryside Gardens in Chatham. Another man in the Florida shop actually boated in Chatham during the summer.101'