Over the past year, I have been writing life stories about local boat builders for Wooden Boat News, a publication of the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador. For the next couple of days, I'm going to highlight the boat builders' stories on my blog. The first story is called: Building a motor boat in southern Labrador - from the keel up! It's about Melvin Curl from St. Lewis (shown in the photo below). It appeared in Wooden Boat News, summer 2009. Enjoy!
Building a motor boat in southern Labrador – from the keel up!
When the temperature hits 25 degrees below zero, many of us retreat to the comforts of home and yearn for milder days. Not Melvin Curl of St. Lewis, southern Labrador. This past winter, he was in his shed building a motor boat. He began in the fall by cutting wood for the keel, planks and timbers of the boat.
“The cold weather came and I put the timber in the shed,” explained Curl. “I have to season it for five months until the sap is out. You need good, dry timber to make boats. I took the stove out of the shed, because the warmth isn’t good for the timber while it’s drying. I worked with nylon gloves on. It was too cold to go in the woods.”
Curl built his first boat in 1962, when he was 18 years old. He learned about the craft from his father and brothers while growing up in St. Lewis. Over the years, Curl has built around 25 boats: dories, motor boats, and speed boats.
“If I’m cutting firewood and I find some good timber, I bring it back for boat building. I mainly use spruce and fir,” said Curl. “I make my own molds. I work with the wood until I get the shape I need.”
Curl is well-known in his community for boat building. “He has the gift of turning a few old twisted tree limbs into a ‘she’ on the ocean,” observed Keith Hardy, manager of Coastal Labrador Fisheries Ltd. “He has the touch of a master with his keen eye for the twists and turns that make up a vessel from a number of vines.”
Hardy has spent the past 26 fishing seasons in St. Lewis. He knows a bit about the history of the Curl family. “Melvin stems from a large family that fished from here and Petty Harbour - a few heads north of St. Lewis,” explained Hardy. “Originally they fished from the creek - a rough and ragged excuse for a cove on the back of this headland. They built their own skiff to get them to the fishing grounds - a boat that brought them home safely with pounds full of cod!”
Fishing cod and salmon was Curl’s livelihood until 1992; he retired as skipper at the time of the moratorium. Since then he has been working seasonally in crab processing.
Curl intends to finish his motor boat before Christmas, and sell it to Coastal Labrador Fisheries Ltd.
“I don’t see anyone else on this coast - from Lodge Bay, Mary's Harbour, Port Hope, Charlottetown or Cartwright - ever building another boat of this stature,” remarked Hardy. “In my opinion it will be the final motor boat cut, dried, framed and fastened in southern Labrador.”
After Curl completes this boat, he’s planning to make one more speed boat. “For the first time, I’ll use fiberglass to finish it,” said Curl. “This boat will be for me.”
No comments:
Post a Comment