Jim Moores

Jim Moores

Monday, June 18, 2012

June 2012

June 2012


Dear Friends,

Recently, we have been bringing smaller boats to our shop here in Florida. In our tent is a 36-foot Windsorcraft with a dark blue hull and varnished deck. She’s a true beauty. Built in Turkey, the “Party Girl II” is the perfect boat for just that. The boat lives on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. The other project is very neat. The 28-foot “Downwind,” is the only one of her kind left. Designed and built by William H. Albury in 1954 in Man-O-War Cay, Abacos, Bahamas. Mr. Albury is probably the most famous of all the Bahamian designer-builders.

The first time I heard the name Albury, I was a much younger man. It was in the summer of 1971, I was 16. I got a job helping on a delivery to Nassau. Back in those days, it was a different world. Wooden fishing sloops lying on the beach, getting work done. Beautiful clipper bows with trail boards and wine-glass transoms with “leg of mutton” rigs, which means the mast is as tall as the boom is long.

I was smitten by these amazing watercrafts as I walked along the beach and talked to the locals. There were different islands and each had their variations. There were even races. Names like Knowles, Pinder and Sawyer were all out island builders.

One day, as we sat aboard at Yacht Haven, this amazingly beautiful schooner sailed in and tied up. I walked out to meet her and grab a line. “Herreshoff?” I asked. The man on deck look insulted and said, “Albury, William H. Albury. He’s Bahamian.”

“Uncle Will” to many was a great builder but an even greater designer. No computers. He did it the old way, with half models. But most importantly, he had a boat builder’s eye. He designed and built by eye, which is a dying art if not already gone in the islands.

So when I got a call from Greg Talbott to go look at his 1954 Albury, I jumped. Greg’s story was simple: The day and age of wooden boat builders in the Abacos ended with the passing of the last generation. He had brought her to the states to have her hull fiber glassed. He had given up trying to find capable wooden boat builders. Then, someone mentioned my name to him.

When I first saw the boat, it had been soda blasted and “Downwind’s” planking is eastern Atlantic cedar. She looked weather battered. Stephanie, my partner, said the boat looked tired. But what I saw was the most beautiful little 28-foot motorboat. On the drive back to the shop, I remember thinking to myself this is why I do what I do. This boat should not be fiber glassed. Now, we are almost done. Five new planks on the top side, six on the bottom, 1,800 silcon bronze fasteners and a new transom. Refairing and paint will be next. I think this passion is slowly working its way into my son, James.

After coming home from a Boy Scout meeting, Troop 141, James said “ Dad, my Boy Scout Troop wants to build a boat for a race. I told them we could build it at our shop!” I thought to myself that my place is not set up for 20 kids. There are too many sharp objects. So after setting some serious ground rules, on two Saturday mornings, scouts came in ones and twos. Eventually, there was a lot of them.

For building materials, they brought six 55-gallon drums, four 2x4s and four sheets of plywood. This was to be the boat? So I asked what kind of boat? One of the leaders told me that it was for a paddle barge and the foam will be here next week. We are going to carve out a boat from Styrofoam, then put some plywood to hold it together? I looked at the boys and asked, “Do you want to build a real boat?” Their eyes glimmered and all at once, a loud “Yes” came out of all of them. I grabbed a piece of cardboard and 
a magic marker and crude plans. My first question was “how long does this boat have to stay afloat, 2 hours?” The answer was maybe that or less. Three sheets of door skin, a bag of electric zip ties and a two-gallon kit of epoxy bonding agent that Teak Deck Systems had given me to test, (I don’t think this was what they had in mind). I helped mark out the first piece, but from then on, this was to be their boat.


The tools were to be simple: a key hole hand saw, a staple gun, a battery drill and a hand block plane. The goal was to get as many of their hands on it as we could. James kind of knew what he was supposed to do from building the remote control boat, so he stepped up to the challenge. Troop 141 was not only building one boat but two, and on two Saturdays. The materials for the original boat planned would be used for a “party barge.”

So we got “The Flying Tiger” cut out, one boy zip tightening and drilling. The hard part was when we mixed up all the epoxy and filled the corners with a fillet of thickened epoxy. Everybody left with a little red epoxy somewhere on their bodies or clothes. Painted with house paint, the boat received finishing touches from our artist Steve Kneipp. He painted an open jaw of a shark. She looked good. I had a concern that if a boy jumped in, he might go through the door skin bottom, so we put a little extra in the bottom.

If you don’t know what door skin is, it’s the 1/16” plywood that is used to sheath cheap interior doors. We use it for pattern stock. The boats were loaded and carried up to the river raft race where all the regional boy scouts from as far as Miami to Daytona came. I was a little nervous when I went up there. There were rafts, catamarans, and a lot of barges, long ones, short ones and then there was our boys’ boat, weighing less than 70 lbs., 16 ft. long, 2-1/2 ft. wide, she was sleek. I left before ours raced. Besides, it was the scouts’ race, right?

Most of the boats took 30 minutes to an hour. When the “Flying Tiger” ran the course, they were back in 15 minutes. The judges didn’t know what to do. I heard later that was the fastest a boat has ever run the course. James was excited. He is already thinking of the next one: “I know what I want to design for next year!”

Until next time,

Jim Moores