Jeff Clarke likes to build boats — little boats, especially models of commercial fishing vessels.
So far, Jeff has built 32 and he has orders from people for another 32 or more.
Model boat builders are not rare in Newfoundland and Labrador, but what sets Jeff apart from others is that he builds models armed with nothing more than a photo of the vessel, viewed on the small screen of his iPhone. Obviously, his boats are not built to scale, but his ability to produce an almost exact replica of a 65-foot vessel in a 28-30-inch model is uncanny.
Jeff is a truck driver now living in Gander, Newfoundland but grew up in Twillingate, one of Newfoundland’s oldest and busiest fishing ports — but his passion for building models doesn’t extend back to his young days.
“Nah, the closest I got to building a boat back then was taking a piece of 2×4 (wood), about a foot long and cut the front in a V shape, hammer a nail in it and tie a piece of line to that and pull her around in the water. Sometimes we’d notch out a little hole in the board and put a few small rocks in it and pretend we had a load of fish onboard,” Jeff laughs.
In later years, Jeff developed a keener sense of vessel design than that small piece of 2×4. He liked the design and shape of the Coast Guard vessel Anne Harvey. Jeff says he’s not sure what attracted him to that particular ship, but he remembers seeing icebreakers coming into Twillingate breaking a channel to allow sealers to get to sea.
“I even thought I’d like to work on a Coast Guard ship. I liked the colour of them and the shape and good work they do in search and rescue and all that sort of thing.”
Jeff’s appreciation of the icebreakers was strong enough to make him want a model of the Anne Harvey. He was surprised to learn there was no model available for sale anywhere. In fact, he wasn’t sure if there was even a model ever built, but that wasn’t enough to convince Jeff that he couldn’t have one.
“I thought, ‘well maybe I could build one myself,’” Jeff says, adding that simply because he had never built a model boat, didn’t mean he couldn’t do it.
After a couple of failed attempts, Jeff got the hang of it and a few weeks later, in August 2012, he completed the first of what would become more than 30 model boat constructions over the next four years.
“She didn’t come out exactly like her (the actual Anne Harvey) but she’s not too bad for the first one I ever did,” Jeff says.
Jeff had a good personal knowledge of boats, albeit smaller ones than most of the vessels he replicates as models. He fished for more than 15 years out of his hometown of Twillingate and gained a good understanding of boats — inside and out.
He also grew up next door to a man who built models made of cardboard. Jeff remembers being fascinated with his neighbour’s craftsmanship and spent hundreds of hours watching him. He also carefully watched another man who lived nearby as he built models of fishing vessels, using wood.
Following the completion of the Anne Harvey, Jeff posted a photo of his first model on Facebook and wondered if his friends would give him some thoughts on how he could improve on his creation and other thoughts in general.
The response was quick and it was positive.
A short time later, an acquaintance from Twillingate called and asked Jeff if he would build a model of his fishing boat. Jeff agreed and that was the start of what turned into more than just a hobby — it became a sideline business as boat owners, mostly fishermen, heard about Jeff’s talent and the calls started flooding in.
As orders were increasing at a faster rate, Jeff had to ramp up his output. He completed 16 models in 2016 but it was getting to be too time consuming. In fact, Jeff posted an announcement on Facebook in December, 2016 that he couldn’t take any more orders because his wait list was getting too long.
“I’ll do the 32 or 33 that I’ve agreed to do, but I can’t take any more orders right now,” Jeff says, adding that it will take nearly a couple of years to fill his current list.
On the technical side of things, Jeff says he uses MDF board, also known as ranger board, to make the keel and ribs and one-inch pine for much of the remainder of the hull.
Jeff says you won’t find a nail in his models; all the materials are glued together. To get the final appearance as close to the real thing as possible, Jeff uses the exact colours of the original. He doesn’t use a paintbrush on the hull. To avoid streaking, he only uses spray paint.
Meanwhile, many vessels these days have artwork on their vessels. That work includes everything from eagles to flags to portraits of people. Jeff replicates that as well by drawing with a very tiny brush. It is very tedious work, but his close attention to precise detail adds greatly to the authentic look he strives to accomplish on every model.
Because many of the actual boats that Jeff copies are fibreglass construction, he needed to find something to make his models look like the real thing.
“Most people won’t believe me at first when I tell them that I use ordinary wall plaster to get that smooth finish that looks like fiberglass,” he says, continuing to explain that his boats are tabletop showcase models for indoor display only and not meant to ever touch water because plaster wouldn’t be suitable. Meanwhile, he says the plaster is tough material and stands up well for years.
“I had one on top of the fireplace (mantel) and the cat knocked her off and even a four-foot fall didn’t put a crack in her.”
Jeff starts construction at the bow to establish the proper shape of the vessel.
“After six or seven ribs back from the front, the boat is pretty much shaped up,” he says, adding that completion time depends largely on the amount of detail required, especially in the superstructure of the vessel.
Detail and the hours required is how he determines the price. Most of his models sell from $800 and $1,500 and that includes the cost of materials. A quick calculation of the 150-200 hours needed to construct a boat and about $250 for materials; one quickly realizes that Jeff is not a greedy man. In fact, he makes much less than minimum wage.
“I’m obviously not in it for the money — it’s just something that I enjoy doing.”
Jeff doesn’t let his hobby get between him and his family. As a husband and father of two, there are lots of demands on his spare hours, but he manages to complete a boat in four or five weeks. He is also a firefighter in Gander.
The vast bulk of Jeff’s orders come from Newfoundland, but he’s had a few that are now in homes outside the province. He has three sitting on shelves in Fort McMurray and he’s had calls from as far away as Texas and Alaska. In fact, he declined a request from Alaska because it was simply too much.
“I think it was a tourist company from Alaska and they wanted 100 fishing draggers — all the one kind.”
Jeff says the Alaska company offered $2,500 per boat and, as enticing as that offer sounds, he turned it down. The company said that Jeff would be responsible for getting all 100 models safely to Alaska. Jeff explained that he is not in the shipping business.
Boats are fragile and too many things can go wrong and, in fact, he tells all his clients that he will build a boat for them on the condition that they come and pick it up.
Jeff is not sure what he will do to fill his spare time after he completes his current orders in a couple of years, but it’s a pretty safe bet he will have something else in mind long before the last keel is laid.
