6 minute read
LUXURY MAKEOVER
LUXURY MAKEOVER
It's the first - but hopefully not the last - high-end retrofit for a family-owned shipyard.
By Kim Ploughman
Artful Interiors Photo
From wooden fishing vessels to a SUPER LUXURY YACHT sounds like a leap of career and prosperity for any seaman; but when it comes to shipyards, it’s an evolution in business that is literally making waves. Glovertown Shipyard, a facility that opened in 1977 in northeastern Newfoundland, has recently refitted a fishing trawler into a luxury expedition yacht. It’s the talk of the town – and the yachting world in North America. According to the shipyard’s owner, Leon Dowden, it’s a dream project that took a dream team of collaborators – most of them based right here in Newfoundland and Labrador.
When Glovertown Shipyard launched in the 1970s, there was a demand for wooden fishing vessels. By 1981, the company had successfully moved on to steel-reinforced boats. Over the years, the shipyard secured clients from Canada and overseas who relied on their entrepreneurial excellence, professionalism, positive attitude, technological advancement and topquality control and products.
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While the shipyard was in his family and he worked stints there, a young Leon Dowden took off to the mainland and became engaged in land surveyor projects at diamond mines and the tarsands of Alberta. By 2010, when he was 26, Leon and his family returned to Glovertown and the shipyard. One year later, Leon’s father, Ford Dowden, one of the owners of the facility, accidently drowned while working at the shipyard. Leon stepped up, learned the ropes and, two months after his father’s passing, he signed a $12-million deal with ExxonMobil.
In the fall of 2019, a special project landed at the shipyard. It began with a call from a retired American, Leon says, who was looking for “American quality at a better price,” to refit a NL-purchased scallop dragger.
The boat was the Anne S. Pierce, which had also served as a training vessel for the Marine Institute, and she had been contracted by the Transportation Safety Board to trawl for debris of Swiss Air Flight 111. Approximately two years ago, the Anne S. Pierce was sold to an owner who wishes to remain anonymous. The only details shared were that he is an older wealthy American who resides in Pennsylvania and has sailed all over the world, including annual sails to Newfoundland and Labrador for a decade.
Once used as a training vessel for the Marine Institute, the Anne S. Pierce sits in drydock before its refit.
From there, Leon became more engaged with the owner and even met with him in New Orleans to go over the vessel’s remodelling details. Early in 2020, before the pandemic hit, the American was here in the province three times. “There on in, there were daily conversations. He was on the boat at all times – via video,” says Leon.
The specifics of the shipyard’s work included stripping the interior, tearing off the wheelhouse and adding a new 40-foot one, as well as reinforcing the ship with steel, insulation and wiring. The project lasted 18 months, minus the four months when the facility was closed during the COVID-19 lockdown. The vessel was finally completed in June 2021.
When asked how it feels to complete such an outstanding project, Leon says, “It feels like it does all other projects: it’s here and then it’s gone. As you watch it float away, there’s always an empty feeling and then wondering what’s next...”
The remodelled galley was designed and custom installed by YourStyle Kitchens, a local cabinetry manufacturer.
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Quality Custom Work
The cabinetry and painting was carried out by YourStyle Kitchens, a NLbased cabinetry manufacturing company that has been providing quality cabinetry to the provincial market for more than 25 years and, more recently, national and international markets. It’s owned by cousins Kevin Walsh and Paul Walsh.
While this was not their first time aboard a boat, professionally speaking, Kevin says, “It was nothing like this.” During a recent phone call, Kevin shares how their company joined this project in February 2020.
“It ended up as a team of people including Glovertown Shipyard, YourStyle Kitchens, the boat owner and a naval architect in the US, David Menna. We had weekly Zoom calls during COVID, and YourStyle produced 3D imagery of the interior for the owner,” Kevin explains.
YourStyle Kitchens not only produced realistic concept renderings, but also completed the interior, including selecting lights, tiles, paint colours, flooring and appliances; as well as fabricating all windows, beds and solid wood doors. “This really helped the owner’s vision for the ship,” Kevin says. “He wanted an interior design based loosely on older style yachts from the coast of Maine.” (E.g. the classic 1933 William Hand motorsailer.) And the owner wanted a steel-hull ship, no fibreglass.
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Solid cherry wood was used to build all doors, door casings, window casings, ceiling beams, handrails, beds and trim. “Cabinetry, which we do every day, was the easy part,” says Kevin. The luxury ship has three levels: the cruise level; the main gallery (with kitchen, laundry and seating area); and the new pilot house, with seating, daybed, washrooms and course console.
YourStyle Kitchens spent many months in the pre-planning stages and five more installing their designs. “We really enjoyed the project… it was a fun and awesome experience. Gave us a chance to do something unique,” remarks Kevin, adding, “The project was interesting as it happened during COVID, which made it more complicated, as it kept the owner away.” Kevin admits that the project “had its challenges, as all projects do,” but he regards it as a great success. “A lot of great friendships were made… perhaps the most important part of this journey.”
A 3-D rendering of one of the cabin's redesigns created by YourStyle Kitchens.
One of those friends is Al Stuckless, a Newfoundlander and finish carpenter from Twillingate who currently owns Al’s Marine Service in Kingston, Ontario. Al moved back to work on the project from November 2020 to March 2021. He worked as a hire on the ship for Kevin. During a recent call from Ontario, Al declares, “The yacht is quite the masterpiece!”
His involvement added to what was already a family project. Al is Leon’s uncle by marriage, and he joined Leon, Leon’s brother and their father’s brother, plus other longtime employees of Glovertown Shipyard.
“It truly was a family and community project,” Al says. “The project means big-time to the town, in that it brought employment and popularity to Glovertown.” Emphasizing the quality of workmanship performed at the shipyard, he adds, “This was totally done by Newfoundland craftsmanship. It don’t get any better than this…”
Al is also confident that this high-end project, which has been “one of the highlights of my career,” will not only benefit the shipyard in Glovertown, but also help diversify the industry in NL. “There’s lots of work out there, and the market is endless with people that have dreams, hobbies, or just want yacht updates or repairs. The sky is the limit depending on budgets,” he says.
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On a personal level, Leon says the project was fulfilling and he would “love to do it all again… I especially enjoyed the company.”
Word is that the 45-foot vessel left the province in mid-July and headed to Maine. With his super buffed-up yacht, the owner plans to return in the near future, as part of his journey to Baffin Island, and then from the east to the west coast through the Northwest Passage.
