DaleH
FOUNDER of Classic Parker Forum
OK, ok … truth be told it’s not mine, but I do have the keys to it and can use it any time needed and I did grow up in and around it. My Father was the best friend of the current owner’s late Father. He had taught me how to splice ropes when he was in his 80s and I was just a young kid. Once I saw the 'old man' make an 60' mast out of 6 pieces of long wood, spliced and tapered together ... and he preferred using a spoke shave to power tools!
So I literally cut my teeth (and probably my hands too!) in their boatyard and the accompanying shop. This is the Pert Lowell Co boat shop on the banks of the Parker (imagine that?) River in Newbury, MA. It’s a working 4th generation boat building shop specializing in wooden boats. Over the years they designed and sold many ‘one design’ small sailing dinghies and skiffs used in fleet competitions, as well as rowing skiffs and whatever you may want made – only out of wood – of course!
I needed to make a new base for my new color radar system and within minutes having the bandsaw at my displosal ... and she was done. The shop is fully equipped for all types of woodworking, plus with a milling machine, welder, and who knows what else too.
Those round ‘mast hoops’ you see pictured are pretty interesting! They’re made from one piece of tapered oak that’s steamed in a long trough that runs down one side of the shop, heated by numerous burners. They’re roughly 3/16” thick, thinning at both ends, and once steamed for hours if not days (pieces up to 50-60’ long) so they’re somewhat limp like al dente’ spaghetti, where the oak is then rolled around a wooden form and then riveted together using copper rivets. Once they harden up and dry out, they’re incredibly strong!
Mast hoops are used to attach the sails to the mast on the big 3, 4, 5 or more masted schooners, tall ships (the USS Constitution, USCG Eagle, etc.) and clippers. These are made today just as they were back in the earliest days of the windjammers, and this shop is the sole remaining US manufacturer of them, with the only other shop known to make them and that is in … you guessed it … China!
Besides boats, this shop continues to they make all types of traditional sailing ‘hardware’ used above the main deck, like pintails, blocks, belaying pins, deadeyes, cleats, etc., see here: http://www.pertlowell.com/wood/wood.html . They have made all of the sailing hardware for the numerous ships that Hollywood has made for recent nautical movies, like Master and Commander and the various Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean installments.
One funny anecdote was that after the 1st Pirates movie was made – they sold off the actual ship that could sail, as they kept the non-sailing ship as a prop. Then the movie was an instant success and they wanted to make a sequel – only they had no ship. So they sent a young studio executive to go ‘buy it back from the current owners’. I can just imagine what his report actually said, but he told the producers … Errrr, 2 problems, they won’t sell it .. and I don’t think we’d want it back even if they did … Turns out that an adult movie company had bought the ship and was sailing it around the Caribbean in it filming porno movies, haha!
I was in the shop that day when Hollywood called, told the shop owner what had happened, and then placed an entire new order to replace everything that they’d need for the new ship.
So I literally cut my teeth (and probably my hands too!) in their boatyard and the accompanying shop. This is the Pert Lowell Co boat shop on the banks of the Parker (imagine that?) River in Newbury, MA. It’s a working 4th generation boat building shop specializing in wooden boats. Over the years they designed and sold many ‘one design’ small sailing dinghies and skiffs used in fleet competitions, as well as rowing skiffs and whatever you may want made – only out of wood – of course!
I needed to make a new base for my new color radar system and within minutes having the bandsaw at my displosal ... and she was done. The shop is fully equipped for all types of woodworking, plus with a milling machine, welder, and who knows what else too.
Those round ‘mast hoops’ you see pictured are pretty interesting! They’re made from one piece of tapered oak that’s steamed in a long trough that runs down one side of the shop, heated by numerous burners. They’re roughly 3/16” thick, thinning at both ends, and once steamed for hours if not days (pieces up to 50-60’ long) so they’re somewhat limp like al dente’ spaghetti, where the oak is then rolled around a wooden form and then riveted together using copper rivets. Once they harden up and dry out, they’re incredibly strong!
Mast hoops are used to attach the sails to the mast on the big 3, 4, 5 or more masted schooners, tall ships (the USS Constitution, USCG Eagle, etc.) and clippers. These are made today just as they were back in the earliest days of the windjammers, and this shop is the sole remaining US manufacturer of them, with the only other shop known to make them and that is in … you guessed it … China!
Besides boats, this shop continues to they make all types of traditional sailing ‘hardware’ used above the main deck, like pintails, blocks, belaying pins, deadeyes, cleats, etc., see here: http://www.pertlowell.com/wood/wood.html . They have made all of the sailing hardware for the numerous ships that Hollywood has made for recent nautical movies, like Master and Commander and the various Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean installments.
One funny anecdote was that after the 1st Pirates movie was made – they sold off the actual ship that could sail, as they kept the non-sailing ship as a prop. Then the movie was an instant success and they wanted to make a sequel – only they had no ship. So they sent a young studio executive to go ‘buy it back from the current owners’. I can just imagine what his report actually said, but he told the producers … Errrr, 2 problems, they won’t sell it .. and I don’t think we’d want it back even if they did … Turns out that an adult movie company had bought the ship and was sailing it around the Caribbean in it filming porno movies, haha!
I was in the shop that day when Hollywood called, told the shop owner what had happened, and then placed an entire new order to replace everything that they’d need for the new ship.
