Vintage Wood Boat Construction Photos Boothbay 33 Plans Ads Santa Barbara 1950s

Description

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Estate sale find, vintage original folder archive containing several photos of a Boothbay 33 under construction.  A series of 45 snapshots documents the production from start to finish.  Also are various Boothbay Boats of California, Santa Barbara, ads, 8X10's, plans, newspaper clippings, etc. There are some duplicates, circa 1950's.
Every boat has a story to tell, and in the case of the Boothbay 33, a powerboat model built during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the story could perhaps be told through song and dance.
That’s because the boat and the company that built it had a major connection to Broadway musicals. Based on the lines of a traditional Maine lobsterboat, the Boothbay 33 was designed by naval architect Kenneth L. Smith and built by Jim Stevens of Boothbay at the instigation of famed Broadway producer Robert E. “Bobby” Griffith.
It all began when Smith and Griffith were visiting the Goudy & Stevens Yard in East Boothbay to look at a 35'5" boat named Diversion, which was designed by Smith in 1958 and built at the yard.
Smith (1910-1987) created a wide range of designs for New England customers. His design office was in Fairfield, Connecticut, though many of the boats were built in Maine. He was a long-time summer resident of East Boothbay and had developed a friendship with Jim Stevens at Goudy & Stevens.
In an interview with Boothbay historian Barbara Rumsey, Stevens explained that while looking at Diversion, the man with Smith started talking about boats. “I always wanted to go into the boatbuilding business,” he told Smith. “Would you consider organizing a corporation to build boats for me?”
That man was the well-known Broadway producer Bobby Griffith. He and George Abbott had produced The Pajama Game, which became a runaway hit and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The duo followed up that success with another musical based on the hit novel Damn Yankees.
A 1959 Maine Coast Fisherman article reported that Goudy & Stevens developed a construction technique to reduce the costs of building the 33s by completely finishing the entire interior of each boat on a jig that was then inverted on the master jig. The keel, deadwood, floor timbers, and engine beds were then mounted in position before the frames or planks were put in position. Stevens said the process produced a quality boat and streamlined production to the point where one Boothbay 33 could be constructed in a week.
Griffith died in 1961, and with his passing the corporation dissolved after just a three-year lifespan. In all, 42 of the Boothbay 33s were built.
By the early 1960s, wooden boat hulls were being quickly supplanted by fiberglass. Recreational boating industry leader Chris-Craft started making fiberglass cabin parts as early as 1959, and by 1965 much of its production was in fiberglass.
The are approximately 8" X 10" with snapshots being closer to 3.75" X 5", shipping weight approximately 2.6 pounds.
PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTION AND PHOTOS FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS  - The archive is in overall Fair to Good Minus used condition, signs of wear, creases, fading, tears, sunning and age toning, soiling, stains, writing, no odors, please see images.
(B4-106)