Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
"Alvin Sibley could retire, but too many wooden boats need fixing," Alvin Sibley, Deltaville, VA |
Collection |
National Fisherman Articles by Larry Chowning |
Catalog Number |
2020.9.2.279 |
Date |
JUNE, 2004 |
Scope & Content |
NATIONAL FISHERMAN, JUNE, 2004, Pgs. 41, 43 BOATS & GEAR: Deltaville, Va. "Unstoppable" "Alvin Sibley could retire, but too many wooden boats need fixing," By Larry Chowning Alvin Sibley married into a Deltaville, Va., boatbuilding fam- ily in 1950 and learned the wooden boat trade from some of Virginia’s most noted boatbuilders. Sibley, 74, is one of the last old-time builders in the area. He has built 95 wooden boats between 40 feet and 58- feet, owned boatyards and boatbuilding facilities at three different locations and would be building new boats today if he hadn’i run up against three bouts with cancer. Sibley had lung cancer in 1989 and after coming out ahead in that battle, he had to face down prostate cancer in 1995. He thought he had that licked, but it came back in 1998. Almost anyone else would have given up the daily repairing of wooden boats, but not Sibley. Today, the phone rings frequently for him at his home in Saluda, Va., just like it did when he was building new boats. Every weekday morning — bright and early — Sibley and his son, Chris, climb in a Toyota pickup truck and head down the road. Sibley repairs wooden boats for watermen, head-boat captains and recre- ational boaters at yards on the James, York, Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, all within a 100-mile radius of his home. The years of experience that Sibley received working with his father-in-law, Johnny (Crab) Weston, and with well- known boatbuilders such as Lee Deagle and Ed Norton have earned him a reputa- tion as a man who knows wooden boats. "I started when 1 was 15 years old work- ing on boats at Southside Marine in Urbanna," Va., says Sibley. Southside Marine was one of the largest yards servicing wooden boats on the Rappahannock River in the 1940s and '50s. "I was just a boy but I must have been pretty good because I was get- ting paid 75 cents an hour and other boys like me working there and in sawmills and on farms were getting 45 and 50 cents an hour," he says. I think it was because I wasn’t lazy and I didn’t mind working." When Sibley married, he went to work for his father-in-law, Johnny W. Weston. Johnny Crab, as everyone in the Deltaville area knew him, had learned to build wooden, cross-planked, deadrise style boats from his uncle "Big" Johnny C. Weston and Paul Green Sr. One of the first boats Sibley and Johnny "Crab" built was a 40-foot round- stern boat they used to dredge and patent-tong oysters in the winter. During the warm weather months they built boats. "When I was with Johnny Crab, we built deadrise workboats and the biggest one we built was a 55-foot buy boat for York River Oyster Company," he says. In 1959, Sibley and his wife, Barbara, opened their own boatyard on Board Creek in Deltaville. He built traditional Chesapeake Bay deadrise workboats there until 1979 when he moved to a smaller facility. "I never really stopped doing boat work, even when my lung was removed. "I slowed up but when I got enough strength I went to work and worked for 15 minutes that first day. The next day I stayed for a half-hour and kept going until I could work a couple hours a day. I kept going until I was able to work a full day. "I think that is part of the reason I’m alive today," he says. "All I’ve ever known all my life is hard work. There are some things you can’t do anything about when you are sick, but I tried to keep my mind on positive things and boats and work have been my life." When Sibley had the third bout with cancer in 1998, he sold his boatbuilding shop in Deltaville and moved 20 miles down the road to Saluda. "It wasn’t far enough," he says. "The phone started ringing the day after I got home from having my prostate removed and it hasn’t stopped yet." In his garage at home, Sibley keeps a 15-inch planner, 28-inch band saw, joiner and table saw. There is also a large air- compressor. In his truck, he hauls around a small portable air-compressor to operate an air hammer for driving nails and caulking. "I couldn’t do the job without my tools at home and it would take a truck the size of a wrecker to haul my band saw," he says. Sibley doesn’t build new boats any- more but every once in a while he’ll get a call from someone to set a new boat up. "I got a call from a man on the Northern Neck about setting a boat up for him," Sib- ley says. "I wound up doing most of the woodwork and he did just enough to make it look like a corncob. Then he told every- body I built it." Sibley works at any boatyard that will pull the boat and let him work. He has also repaired boats in the backyards of the own- ers. He worked on a number of boats at Port Urbanna Yachting Center last summer. Urbanna is just five miles from Saluda and Sibley has been encouraging watermen t bring their boats there. "It is close to where I live and they have plenty of room there to work on boats," he says. He is presently working on the Honey, a 42-foot oyster boat owned by Shores and Ruark Seafood Co. of Urbanna. "We put all new top work and a new house on her," Sibley says. Sibley gets spruce pine from local lumber companies. He buys oak from Fary Brothers a firm in Glouces- ter, Va., which caters to boatbuilders, and he gets mahogany from a lumber com- pany in Richmond. In his travels, Sibley also installs engines. He is installing a $32,000, 450-hp Cummins diesel in a 45-foot deadrise head boat, which he built in the 1990s. "The main difference from the way it used to be with me is that when I feel bad 1 stay home and no one questions it," he says. "Everybody knows I’m a lucky man to still be here. Every day I think of how fortunate I am to be doing what I love to do. "When I was young there were a lot of men around working on wooden boats, but there aren’t many anymore," he says. "There's plenty of work and not enough good craftsman around who can do it. I guess that’s good for me." As the interview came to a close, the phone rang and Sibley took the call. It was a potential customer, and Sibley quizzed him on the problems with his boat. Before the conversation was over, Sibley had yet another job. "Someone wants a shaft log and horn timber replaced in their boat," says Sib- ley, after hanging up the phone. "I told him he’s going to have to wait, because he’s a recreational man. I’ve got a list of watermen who need their boats repaired so they can go make a living. "Watermen come first with me and they always will," he says. "I guess it’s because I worked the water and have been in the same place." |
Source |
Chowning, Larry |
Imagefile |
009\202092279.JPG |