Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS December 2015 '70s Memories - Shaky Tower By Lee S. Wilbur “Lee Wilbur…Call on line one…Lee


Wilbur…Call on Line one” Would think Wilbur Yachts might have had a dozen lines. Reality was two or three incoming. Occasionally though, before Congress tried to put us boatbuilders out of business, a few calls could stack up. “Mac” McMullen from Wayfarer Marine in Camden, great friend and another early mentor, was on line.


“How’d you feel about doing a sport-


fi sherman on that new 46 foot Jarvis hull.” “Hey Mac, how’s it goin? And, how’d you know a sportfi sh is sittin’ high on my list.” Talking true. Newman 46 in a well fi nished sportfi sh was very much on my mind for good reason. With Jarvis Newman’s decision to hire Royal Lowell and Al Spaulding to design a 46’ (Jarvis fi gured it was time to stop screwing around with small stuff ) we’d fi nished several.


Looking back, I’d haz-


ard the statement this was one of the fi nest hulls to ever come off the Maine coast. If there were a “Boat Hall of Fame,” the “46” should vie for top billing.


Mac continued, “Friend of mine, guy I’ve known for some time, fi nally made up his mind. Wants a sportfi sh and asked for my opinion on what he should do. Not in- terested in a Florida yard and I agreed. Said he could get a Maine boat for less money and have a better sea boat.”


Music to my ears. By this time, since the 46 had come on the scene we’d com- pleted several styles, from gillnetters, drag- gers and lobster boats to fi ne yachts. Sport- fi shermen, after climbing over and around them at the boat shows had stirred my juic- es, only needed an order for next challenge. “Want to warn you though. This guy can be a bit tough. Use him right and you’ll have no problems.” Probably called Mr. W. within min- utes off the phone with Mac. Set a time for


BOAT & SHIPYARD NEWS Continued from Page 18.


cruiser for a customer from Rhode Island; and a 46 to New York


There are a number of hulls that will be heading out as kit boats. A 38 hull, which will be fi nished off as a cruiser, has gone to Samoset Boat Works in Boothbay; a 46 Superwide has gone to Light’s Fiberglass in Steuben; two 46s are at Clark Island Boat Works in St. George; a 42 will be going to Cape Cod; and a 38 to New York.


Over in Hall’s Quarry John Williams Boat Company has got nearly all their storage customers hauled and put away for the winter. The big news is that they have a new build to do this winter. It will also be a new design. They have gone to Doug Zurn of Marblehead, who is designing them a


new 38 foot hull, which will be used with the old 38 deck and house mould. The deck is already being laid up, but the hull will not be started until later this winter. For accom- modations she will have a V-berth, enclosed head with shower and galley down and a big salon. She will be powered by twin 375-hp Volvo diesels to an IPS drive system. She is being built for a customer from Cranberry Isle and will be done sometime next summer. A 55-foot power boat is in to be re- powered. She is getting twin FPT engines with jet drives. A Wilbur 38 is to be Awlgripped. They are also going to strip the varnish, add Soun- down to lessen the engine noise and have new cushions and canvas installed. A Stanley 36, which was built in 2007, is


in for Awlgrip and to have a mast and boom added.


he and his captain, great guy as it turned out from one of the fi shing capitals of the world, Montauk Point, New York, to fl y up, see the yard, go over ideas and layout. Visit went well. We shook hands on the deal and he wrote a deposit check for $100k.


Can’t recall when we made the change to signed contracts and I’m not sure to this day just why we did. No real difference than a hand shake. Builder’s word was a good as any piece of paper. Mr. W. wanted his boat for the following year’s fi shing sea- son out of Stuart, Florida. Looked doable. However, one thing Mack had warned, Mr. W.’s penchant for “loading up” his prior boats. And, unfortunately,


one thing I’ve


never learned is how to say “NO”. Client asks for change or addition, tried to oblige. And, the number one request from Mr. W., a piano for his wife…a concert pianist, she wouldn’t go with him on the boat for any length of time without a piano. Where in hell does a piano fi t on a Sportfi shing 46’? Now that was a challenge…became more like a handicap.


In the relatively short time from Jarvis’ layup, to hull resting on blocks in the shop, we’d done the profi le and layout drawings, the “spec” book, conversed with Mr. W. several times of ideas for fi nish, placed orders for equipment. Mac was right. Mr. W. wasted little time getting around to the old songs “Wouldn’t it be nice to have…” and “Don’t you think I need…” The spec book began to grow before hull was layed up. Doubled before she’d found her berth on the shop fl oor. Every few days a new conversation.


Thrill for me on this particular boat was opportunity to work with Pipe Weld-


ers out of Florida and New Jersey. Had a great reputation for their aluminum work and especially, fi shing towers. They were big time. Worked with Merritt, Rybovich… the Southern boys.


Made some mistakes from the “git-go”. Should have concentrated on weight factors even though the later materials weren’t yet available. Mr. W. wanted a light interior fi nish. No teak or mahogany. Choices were ash or cypress. Afraid the lighter weight, softer Cypress wouldn’t stand up to beat- ing an offshore boat often takes. Decided ash trim to offset white Formica over ply- wood bulkheads. As want list grew, should have pulled a “Time Out”. Air Condition- ing increase required a bigger generator, Fuel tanks grew. Larger fl ybridge. More equipment. And the piano. Work sched- ule increased. Completion date crept ever closer. Added extra crew. Pipewelders slot required an uncompleted launch so now she’d have to be fi nished in the water, tak- ing even more time. We launched and had her towed across the harbor to Southwest Boat where the tower would be built and installed. Controls and steering had to be set up in cockpit, bridge and tower stations when tower was completed. Crew worked hard, but diffi cult in another yard with tools, etc. couple miles away and owner often around watching. Still, an incredibly rewarding process watching it all come together. Especially, the guy from Pipewelders taking this pile of aluminum pipe, laying it out on the pier, cutting it to length and angles hanging off a ladder while he welded, then setting in place and having it fi t perfectly. We’re


Continued on Page 23. Wilbur Makes Repairs to Patrol Boat


Two view of the repair work in progress. Left photo shows what was left of the core of the platform. The right photograph shows the new core being vacuum bagged down.


Continued from Page 19.


DISCOUNT POWER TOOLS CORDED POWER TOOLS CORDLESS POWER TOOLS FUELED POWER TOOLS PNEUMATIC POWER TOOLS FASTENERS HAND TOOLS


MATERIAL HANDLING


POWER TOOL ACCESSORIES SAFETY SUPPLIES WELDING SUPPLIES


up front to feed the forward portion of the engine room but they were small. So we fi lled those back in and actually opened up the cockpit so we weren’t going to get water and moisture into the engine room and we got quite a bit more air. We put all brand new windows throughout the whole boat.” Clark Island did the mast and the new


rudder. John said, “They ended up using schedule 80 for the 14 foot mast. It is defi - nitely a rugged mast. Originally we wanted a 500 pound working load. My discussion with Andrew was to be able to at least han- dle 1000 pounds. I spoke with Steve Weiss for some engineering advice and based on schedule 40, we were easily within the 3000+ range. They ended up going with schedule 80 and I don’t know what the heck that will handle. We then had Indalo do the rigging on it and they did a beautiful job.” Near the end of the project came in- stallation of the new electronics, which was the Furuno TZ Touch 2. John added, “That was nice, two 15 inch screens. We had one mounted at the helm station and the other was mounted over near the hauling station just inside of the door. Originally we were planning on mounting that on the dash area,


but unfortunately the owner of the boat need- ed a platform for his laptop so we ended up having Nautilus Marine custom fabricate an overhead bracket because the TZ Touches can’t hang from the overhead. They actually have to have a base. That worked very well. Nautilus also did the transom gate, because it is an open transom boat. We then put 11 rod holders in the boat. Then on the port side there is a trap rack. We have got that so it is removable. So when they are fi shing they can actually use those rod holders, but when they are running gear, they have got the capacity to utilize that trap rack, which is set up with quick release pins. We also put a new propeller on the boat. We got an additional 2 knots of performance out of the boat and she was running quite smoothly.” What is next, they have a 10 year old boat and the owner wants her to look new. So they are doing a major refi t on her. They have a 34 that changed hands this spring and the new owners want to make some changes. Another 34 is in for new teak and holly or teak and rubber deck. They also want to modify her a little bit. It also looks like they have got a couple of additional boats coming in for the winter and potentially they might have a new build. This will keep them busy for a number of months.


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