Ron Smith, a young craftsman who worked at Cowell Boat Works during most of its history, is now a builder in North East, PA. Ron recently offered these reflections about Cowell Boat Works.

"Back in those days we used to drive the truck to the lumber company near the tracks and pick up a train car load of wood, drive back to the shop where we would stack the wood for drying, forming, etc. Each boat was built entirely by hand. Each plank was cut and fit over a jig and then removed, brass screws and rivets were all applied by hand. The nose piece was formed by steaming , gluing, cutting to fit each boat. Ribs were all oak cut from rough cut oak, run through a machine, put in a steamer and bent over the jig."

"Two other employees were Dick Brunner and Ray Scott. Joe Dedinsky was the boss of the outfit. Joe taught all of us how to use the tools. All employees, including myself, were from Harborcreek PA."

"The boat works address was Erie, PA but it was located in Harborcreek Township. At that time my starting wages were 1.60 per hour. Every boat that came off the line during that time,I worked all the mahogany work....decks, rails, some of the painting. Pretty much from start to finish."

"Joe made about 10,000 or 15,000 per year, and that included caring for the beach and all the tenants. I can not believe they ever made any money on the boats. I can say they were probably one of the best built boats you will ever find...not just because I was building on them but because all the material put into them was the best grade. He was an expert craftsman."

Many thanks to Ron for sharing his memories!

Tom Dedinsky, son of Joe Dedinsky who headed the Cowell Boat Works operations for many years, adds these comments about Cowell construction:

"In the later years, they began adding a fiberglass bottom to the boats to increase the strength over the pounding of the waves. This procedure involved putting a resin on the bare wood, then a layer of fiberglass cloth covering all seams and laps, then several layers of resin (white, yellow or aqua--depending on color of boat), then finally paint."

"The Cowell was deeper than Lymans, Cruisers, or Grady White etc, and could ride waves and bad weather in worse conditions than one should be out in: they were made that way by design."

"When some customers in the Buffalo, NY area began telling of long trips and getting into bad weather and how well the boats took the waves, Joe Dedinsky began looking at ways to strengthen the hulls, and the fiberglass did just this, as well as protect the wood from rotting, bug infestation , and mildew etc. He also felt this was a round-about-way to combat some of the points of fiberglass boats which were beginning to make in-roads in the marketplace."

"They actually used to take boats out in Lake Erie and have an employee lie under the deck as the boat rode the waves, looking for and feeling the deflection in the hulls, and then inspect them in the shop afterwards. A boat hull does bend and flex as it rides the waves, and this fiberglass was a way of making a stronger and safer boat."

"Cowell was the first to offer a fiberglass covered bottom as an option, and I believe on some models it was a standard: I don't remember if any other manufacturers began offering it or not."

"I lived at the Boatworks with my dad from kindergarten until high school when it closed. I worked as a kid hanging around with Ron Smith and the others, sanding boats, cleaning shop, etc. I went to all the boat shows and hung around them as my Dad and the dealers sold boats. I know I skipped a lot of school to go to Chicago, Cleveland and other places."

"I unloaded trucks, went on deliveries to dealers, steamed ribs, butted rivets, glued the keels and bows etc, not as a certified worker of course but just helping out the way a kid helps out on a farm, until I got older--then I did a lot more."

"When I was 16, in 1966, I bought a 1957 chevy and I fixed it up in the closed Boatworks. My Dad painted the thing in the paint room still intact from the boats. The electricity was still on. The paint booth, the compressors and the outdoor overhead hoist they used to load boats on trucks were all working. I used that hoist to lift the car and install new springs."

"There was a pier built off the beach in front of the Boatworks, and on a few occasions they hired a professional photographer, but mostly Ron Smith drove the boats (he was best able to swerve the boats towards the camera for the best view, and my Dad took photos off a tripod. These photos were used for the brochures and they made new ones every year just like the auto makers did."

"At that time, the Beach had about 20 or so cottages they rented out by the week to people from Pittsburgh, and there were a lot of people around and my dad would get someone different to ride the boats and take photos in action: I am pretty sure that on the one picture in the brochure on the site is Ron Smith driving and me and a friend sitting in the front."

Thanks to Tom for these insights.

You can see surviving examples of the 1957 King (our boat at the top of the home page page of this site), a later model King (Rip and Judy Bodman's 1959 boat in the Models section), the Viking (including Captain Seaweed's and Tom Murray's), and the most prevalent survivor, the Sportsman (including boats belonging to Paul Huntley and Bob Dancause featured in the Models section).

The advent of fiberglass, the constraints of manufacturing capacity, and Tom Cowell's untimely death all contributed to a premature end to this elegant and affordable line of recreational watercraft.  The last boat made in 1960 bears the hull number of 3219. This beauty survives today, and belongs to Bob Dancause (see Models section). This site is dedicated to finding and recording the stories of Tom Cowell's legacy.