Lloyd Boone
Born in Cottrell's Cove, Notre Dame Bay, Lloyd Boone moved to Point of Bay in 1977 when he married Cybil Philpott. He learned how to build boats from from his father-in-law, Wilfred Philpott, a carpenter and farmer who learned how to build from his father, Stanley. “In '76 I started. That was my first boat. [Cybil’s] father showed me how to build it … it was a speed boat.”
“I just got into it again four years ago, when I retired. I worked at carpentry work all my life. And I built twenty-one boats before that, and then I built four now since I retired. The ones I build now are punts and a motor boat - old fashioned boats. I wanted to get into that. Before I just built speed boats.”
In designing his first punt, Lloyd looked to his brothers. “I got part of it from my brother Ray [in Summerford] and part of it from another brother in Cottrell’s Cove - Donald… and I changed it a little to suit myself,” said Lloyd.
“I went down and took the scale off my brothers', but I did change it somewhat 'cause I didn't want it to look like Ray's and I didn’t want it to look like [Donald’s]... I changed the stern of it, and well, then I had to change the afterhook 'cause it didn't work out right. Now the front is pretty well the same - back as far the midship - but from there back I changed it, so it is different.”
For the motor boat design, Lloyd used a half model that once belonged to Stanley Philpott, Cybil’s grandfather. Lloyd used juniper and white spruce for the timbers, fashioned from the roots, and black spruce for the planking. It was outfitted it with a four horsepower Atlantic marine engine.
The motor was a model that [Cybil's] grandfather had, Stanley Philpott. It was in a museum up to Botwood. And this old guy came down one day and I told him I was going to build a motor boat. He said, 'have you got a model?' and I said 'no'. He said 'do you want one?'. I said 'yes.' So he went and got it for me. So, I just took the scale off of that. Cybil - I thought it was really neat because it was my grandfathers mould, so it had some significance to us.
“I still got my speed boat that’s twenty years old here. But I’m thinking about building a new one like it. I like wooden boats... I find that they ride nicer. They’re softer on the water than fibreglass; Fibreglass bangs more, I guess it’s harder, right? It’s not like the wood. So I’ll probably end up building another.”
