Wilbert ‘Willy’ Gordon - The boatbuilder

Like any typical, young, energetic schoolboy, Wilbert Gordon, who also goes by ‘Willy’ and ‘McGyver’, used to make paper boats and cast them into the sea or running waters and watch them sail.

Little did he know that, in the ensuing decades, his passion would turn into an income-earning opportunity. In fact, he might have missed a real big business opportunity because, with the art of boat building, in Jamaica, there’s hardly any competition.

At least there was certainly none in Falmouth, Trelawny, or along the north coast. Gordon will tell you that he has built fishing boats for people from several parishes across Jamaica.

Now, unless you’re closely connected to the sea in some way, you hardly think about the elaborate nature of ship building, or the less arduous task of making boats.

China, South Korea and Japan control the world’s shipbuilding market, together accounting for 93 per cent of the world’s ship production.

China, Indonesia, and India control fishing boat production.

In Trelawny and the surrounding parishes, Gordon controls fishing boat production.

He was also a fisherman, doing spear fishing from age 16 to age 75, all of 59 years.

While there are other boatbuilders in Jamaica, today the focus is on Gordon.

The Sunday Gleaner caught up with Gordon at his home in Fourteen, a community next to Falmouth Gardens, in Falmouth, as he relaxed while taking a break from repairing a boat named Sea Glory.

He explained that he usually works from around 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. until 10 a.m., then breaks before resuming at 3 p.m. up until 6 p.m.

Gordon actually started out as a cabinetmaker before dropping that trade to focus more on boat building.

“I was doing cabinet trade but mi stop doing that 45 years ago, around 1980,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

“Tell yuh wha happen. Yuh build the furniture fi the people them, they give you advance but when they’re to come for the finished product, they don’t have the money to give you! And I don’t have the space to store them! So I eventually have to give them it and then them nuh waa pay an’ we end up in war. Mi nuh guh court house still, suh mi mek dem galong wid eh.”

built his first boat

While he was still doing cabinetry, he built his first boat, an 18-footer, in 1969. He wanted to start fishing and he had no way of getting a boat, so he built one for himself.

“Mi nuh guh no weh guh learn eh. From mi deh school, mi love build dem likkle small boat and put in a sea and watch dem sail. Is just natural.”

Gordon said Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 destroyed the first boat he built. He built another one bigger than the first, a 34-foot vessel, but this started rotting after being pulled from the water during a time when Gordon was unwell.

“Another storm again after Gilbert finish mash it up. The likkle boat mi have now, a 14-footer, it mi use go fishing sometimes.”

By then he had started learning mechanic work, so as to be able to fix outboard engines. He continued the mechanic work until he was forced to give it up but not before imparting the knowledge to others, in much the same way he shared the boatbuilding knowledge.

A job to build a boat doesn’t come often and Gordon doesn’t keep track of how many he has built since the first one in 1969, over 55 years ago.

“I remember I build six 30-footer, four 28-foot, and some 18-foot and some 16-foot; a good amount. Mi build boat fi man from Lucea (Hanover), Montego Bay (St James), Lilliput (St James), Falmouth, Duncans, Coopers Pen, Rock, Scarlett Hall, (Trelawny) and St Ann. Yes, mi well known.”

The costs vary. The arrangement is for the customer to supply the materials then Gordon would charge according to time. He said the lowest he ever charges to build a boat is $80,000.

He uses wood and fibreglass to build the boats.

“Mi usually used the wolmanised pine, used to use shot edge, but naw use that no more. Mi use the groove and tongue, it give a more sturdy bend. Otherwise I use the ply, marine ply at first, but the marine ply has something like oil in it so after a while it starts to get black and start to deteriorate. The groove ply that they use in housing schemes, it mi ah use. Is an exterior ply, a more compressed ply than the construction ply. Don’t care how water ketch that, it don’t swell and flake off. It hold the fibreglass better than the marine ply.”

age concern

At 79 years old, Gordon realises he is getting on in age, and there is concern that, after he retires, the art of boat building, as practised by him and the several person he has taught over the years, will die.

It’s a concern expressed by Ballantine Hutchinson, Gordon’s friend, fishing partner, and customer, who the boatbuilder has also taught the trade.

“He recently built a boat for me, and I’m very satisfied. About two weeks ago, I licensed it,” Hutchinson shared.

“A 17-foot. I paint it up, licensed it, waiting on the engine now to go fishing.”

The boat is named Kwaku and is painted in the Jamaican colours of black, green, and gold.

Hutchinson has lived in Falmouth close to 30 years and says that, as a young man then, he had to stick with Gordon to get the knowledge of life on the seas.

“Him have a wealth of knowledge,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson said after hanging out with Gordon for an extended period he began to learn the art of boat building. Gordon was the first man he met who was a boatbuilder.

“The man who mi know, who mi buy mi first boat from, him learned from this man. And him dead now, so Willy is the only one in Falmouth who dweet.”

He said he would like to see a continuation of the trade.

“It amazes me to see a man with this sort of knowledge that is literally wasting away. There is no young person who have the intention to carry on the trade. I find it very fascinating,” Hutchinson disclosed.

Asked why he doesn’t take it up, he replied: “Mi woulda like dweet, but mi old now, mi cyaa bother with that. But it really fascinate me. And it’s easy. It’s easy.”

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