How does Special Agent Gibbs get built boats out of his basement in NCIS?

Answer 1

It is an inside joke that he never answers this. But obviously he disassembles it, and then either discards it or reassembles it. He is never seen using fiberglass or glue on the finished assembly.

In the episode "Outlaws and In-Laws" during Season 7, one of Gibb's boats shows up with a dead body in it? At least the boat named for his daughter makes it out of the basement, somehow. But how? Maybe he does take it apart and rebuild it out of the basement. But is that really possible?

With most boat kits there is a lot of silicone caulking, glue, etc. that would prevent most people from disassembly but if you were building the boat to smash it to pieces, why would you bother to do all that? I wouldn't bother to buy even wood glue for something I was going to destroy. It would make it harder to burn later on. You would build the wood part and then trash it since it is never meant to be seaworthy. The idea is that if you cut, sand, bolt, and screw all the pieces together, that someone, somewhere, sometime might need to repair it. Unless it was pure fiberglass, you could remove that one piece of wood and replace it with another so you don't have to throw the whole boat away. For instance, My father was in the Construction Battalion in the Navy so he walked away from that with the ability to cut a straight line with a handsaw that amazed most people.

The boat that Gibbs is building is an Amigo Kit from Glen-L which is a real simple design, not a yacht but sleeps 4, with a sail and engine. It comes in either FG or WD materials lists (fiber glass or wood). It isn't even the size of a really good personal fishing boat size at an overall length of only 25 feet including the bowsprit (the forward tip of the boat has a bowsprit that the sail attaches to in the front). If you didn't calk, glue, or fiberglass the whole thing until you got it outside, then, YES, you would be able to disassemble sections of it to take outside and reassemble to do that work (caulking, gluing, or fiberglassing over) on it with more room and ventilation (if you have to clear out of your house to paint the interior, imagine the fumes from all that glue and caulking, not to mention if you did it with plankwood, it would have to be waterproofed and finished, then painted on the outside. Breathing that while working in the basement would make Gibbs so high that his Bourbon wouldn't be necessary. When Gibbs meets Mike Franks in Mexico, Mike has a boat that is NOWHERE NEAR the same size, it is smaller by far. But it is big enough to take themselves and tourists sailing near the beach and catch fish. Not something you could go to the Bahamas in, but then he is already in the Baja.

Big Hint: The idea of building a boat by hand with handtools (like a brace and bit and a regular hand saw) causes more planing and sanding later on down the line, but ... the MAIN IDEA is mostly to build character in the man rather than building a boat to take sailing. The sailing part is just kind of the bonus. Some boat builders I read about online have taken 5 years to create the same boat. Most private boat builders start out to have a boat they can obtain cheaply, but a lot of them sell them instead of ever sailing them. The pleasure in the accomplishment is amazing.

Answer 2

He is building a sail boat in honor of his wife and child who were killed by a Mexican Drug Dealer when his daughter and wife witnessed a murder of a staff Sergent. This would lead Gibbs to join NCIS.

Answer 3

He has actually built four boats in his basement. He clearly has some way of removing them, the only thing he said was that he 'breaks the bottle', implying he removes part of the wall. The one he was building in earlier episodes was apparantly the third boat, and one in later seasons is the fourth. We know one boat was named after one of his ex wives, Diana, and that he burned it.

Answer 4

he flooded his basement with water and sail the boat out to sea. what do you think?

Answer 5

The boat is built on a set made to look like a basement. The boat is wheeled out, like any other prop, to make room for a new boat project.