Great Marsh Boatworks Crew
Jimmy Amspacher
"True boatbuilding is done by hand, one plank at the time."
Jimmy Amspacher grew up pulling crabpots, hauling scallops, and culling fish for the commercial fishhouses of his home community, Atlantic, NC. Here he experienced firsthand what made a "good work boat," learning from the fishermen and boatbuilders of Down East, as they worked the waters of Core Sound. Today he maintains the same high standards of traditional boat-building in his models and in his backyard boatbuilding operation. (2004 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Water Ways brochure)
Retired after 30 years as a mechanical engineer with Naval Air Depot at Cherry Point, Jimmy's business, The
Jimmy Amspacher working on the skiff built at Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Boathouse in Marshallberg, NC, specializes in building models of Core Sound work boats. He learned his boatbuilding skills on the "real thing" from Julian Guthrie (NC Heritage Award Recipient) at Hi-Tide Boatworks in Williston. Jimmy's models reflect scale and detail the "traditional way" with juniper.
He also demonstrates "the real boatbuilding" skills as part of the outreach programming of the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center at locations around the state from Ocracoke and Hatteras, to the Grove Park Inn. He is also the lead boatbuilder in the restoration of the Jean Dale, a 40-foot fishing boat that in many ways symbolizes the Down East traditions of the Harkers Island area.
The Jean Dale was an original design by Brady Lewis in middle of the last century, who is known as the "father of the flared bow", a distinctive style of wooden boat. Batbuilders on Harkers Island explain it this way: "Brady had a gift for building things and he understood the water. The curve of the bow turns water away from the inside of the boat, the round stern has no corner for net to get hung on; practical thinking, practical people, fine craftsmanship, ingenious results." From Lewis' influence has come a long legacy of master boatbuilders and an industry whose trademark Harkers Island "flare" is recognized worldwide.
In 2005 when the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center was showcased at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Jimmy and fellow boatbuilder, Heber Guthrie, built a Core Sound sailskiff right on the National Mall in five days and then sailed it across the Potomac River. more photos
At local festivals around the state and area schools, Jimmy has built boats and then donated them for auction to raise money for the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center. Jimmy continues building boats "the traditional way" because he believes the "old way" is truly the "best way." In Jimmy's words, "True boatbuilding is done by hand, one plank at the time."
— from Southern Artistry
