The Craft While today’s builders share ties to the state’s boating and boat building history, the yachts and their construction cover a wide range of styles, purposes, materials and techniques. Perhaps the most traditional-looking yachts being built in North Carolina are those of Pacific Seacraft, a company that relocated from California after it was purchased by Steve Brodie and his father, Reid, in 2007. It offers a range of cruising sailboats from 31 to 44 feet and has just introduced a new 61-footer. Salvador Hernandez, a 40-year carpenter, finishes a mahogany door jamb by hand at Pacific Seacraft. All of the Pacific Seacraft yachts save for the 61 have solid fiberglass hulls laid up by hand inside a mold. The outer fin-ish, called gelcoat, is laid in the mold first, followed by the fiberglass cloth, and then resin is poured over and worked into the cloth until it is saturated. A liner, laid up in a separate mold by the same process, is bonded to the hull and provides additional strength as well as the basic structure of the interior. The third major component, the deck, is attached after much of the interior and systems have been installed. “Everything is heavily built,” Brodie says. “These are boats that oftentimes are crossing oceans. People are entrusting the lives of their families to their boats, and that’s something we take very seriously. The crew of the Jarrett Bay 90 with the hull’s carbon fiber stringers. PHOTO COURTESY OF JARRETT BAY BOATWORKS PHOTO BY BILL KUND 40 WBM may 2015
Wrightsville Beach Magazine May 2015
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