Master boat builder opens studio for Sierra Art Trails this weekend

Volney Dunavan / Community Correspondent

(Updated: Thursday, October 01, 2009, 6:18 PM)

A North Fork artist who is part of this weekend's Sierra Art Trails is master boat builder Jim Crockett. For the art weekend, Crockett's home studio will feature his most current creation "Osprey II," a 17-foot, 1937 cabin cruiser.

She was launched at Bass Lake last month, almost seven years after she was started and 70-some years after the young Crockett launched his very first boat at Bass Lake as a 10-year-old Fresno boy. The term "master boat builder" is from an article about Crockett in the September 1996 issue of the Tuolumne River Woodworkers Association.

The newest launch was built using plans from Popular Science's series of "boats anyone can build." The plans were designed by H.A. Calahan, a famous boat expert of the day. Crockett's model is made from Honduran mahogany and has more than 4,000 sea-worthy fittings, today made of silicone bronze, which is tougher than the traditional brass fittings of earlier nautical days. It also has more than 500 mahogany plugs covering deck screws.

The transition from the lower deck to the forward deck is a lovingly carved dolphin, covered with gold leaves.

Neighbors Roy and June Coyle have photographically recorded the building of the "Osprey II" from the very start.

"Osprey II" was commissioned by a Fresno friend of Crockett's who has donated the completed boat to the Central Sierra Historical Society Museum at Shaver Lake. During summers, the boat will be docked and docents will take visitors on the lake to see the eagles. The museum is open year round and the boat will be housed inside during winter months. "Osprey II" will return to Bass Lake in May, for the annual Antique and Classic Wooden Boat Show.

"Crockett's studio is so clean you can almost eat off the floor," comments fellow North Fork artist and friend, Paul Abram. Even the sawdust is recycled, becoming "compost for Lloyd's garden," Crockett says referring to his wife.

Crockett presently has an apprentice and student, Jon Anderson of Coarsegold. Crockett says Anderson has been invaluable as health issues regarding his knees and circulation have made some of the steps of the boat building very difficult; indeed for several years Crockett's doctors were advising that he give up his woodworking completely.

While Crockett has made and sold a series of distinctive walking sticks, his next project will most likely be refinishing an 8-foot dinghy he built about 15 years ago. An earlier project was a handmade circa 1497 20-foot Newfoundland Trap Skiff complete with sails. This was a popular display at a North Fork Arts Council Sidewalk Celebration earlier this decade. His first professional quality boat was a kit Chris Craft he built in 1954.

Crockett enhanced his love of boats, rowing and sailing by working for a boat dealer at Lake Tahoe the summer of 1945. He retired from a compatible career in 1990 and he and his wife moved to North Fork in 2002. He has given classes at the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco and his original "Osprey," a 121/2-foot rowing boat similar to a dory, is hanging on the wall at the Fresno Art Museum where Crockett has been an Artist in Residence. Crockett has won honors at both county and state fairs.