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From Roger Crawford's vantagepoint on the Marshfield waterfront, the economy looks healthy. "It's good right now: People can afford to buy toys," including the ones Crawford makes: replicas of 19th century work boats.
There's no let-up at his two-man shop on Ferry Street.
Crawford, 52, has just finished two boats for Paramount Studios to use in the next Jim Carrey movie.
He's currently at work on a sensational-looking black-hulled boat for a businessman from West Chester, Pa., who met us at the sailboat show last year in Annapolis."
As soon as that's done, there are other orders to fill: "We're backed up four boats now. People are waiting two to four months to get a boat."
Although the company is busy. With a backlog of orders, Crawford has no plans to expand. In fact, his business strategy is to stay small so the firm can continue to provide personal service to its upscale customers.
Crawford Boat Building specializes in "upscale, fiberglass versions of early American working watercraft." The company makes a 16-foot sailing dory, but its main product is the Melonseed skiff, a replica of a sailing boat used in the 1800s for duck hunting on Chesapeake Bay.
The Melonseed, just under 14 feet and weighing 250 pounds fully rigged, was developed from a wooden boat built from plans in the Smithsonian archives.
The boats have hardwood and polished brass trim, wood masts and sails in historically accurate colors, including dark red and brown.
Many are sold to women, who want a boat they can sail by themselves, Crawford said.
"One-third to one-half of the boats have been bought by or for women. That's an astounding figure," he said. "In the boat business generally, women don't buy boats. It's a guy thing."
The small, historic Melonseeds also appeal to "big boat people," Crawford said.
"Many of my customers can afford to' buy bigger boats, but they don't have time to use them. We've all become so confoundedly busy we've lost control of our time," he said. "Big boat people buy, Melonseeds because they want to go sailing again."
Melonseed owners, convene often for regattas and group expeditions. Four official events have already been scheduled for 1997, the main one being the Summer Solstice Regatta, June 20-22, in Duxbury Harbor. Last year 33 boats and 75 sailors from all over the country participated.
Crawford's boats will play a key role in the upcoming Jim Carrey movie, "The Truman Show." In the film, Carrey's character has a traumatic childhood experience in a small boat and developed a fear of water, a fear he must conquer as an adult. "Later in life, to resolve a serious adult problem, he has to escape by a boat. He has to come to terms with the fact that he has to get on a boat and sail it again," Crawford said. "That's as much as I can tell You, because (at the time the boats were being built) the director had five plots and the editor had ten different endings," Crawford said.
Crawford, who came to Marshfield from Milton, has survived in the boat-building business for 20 years with his deliberate no-growth strategy.
"We are a small shop that makes art out of fiberglass work with an awful lot of handwork," he said. "We're only doing 20 to 25 boats a year," and there are no plans to expand.
"I can't see having 20 people, a shop foreman and three secretaries," he said.
His customers don't want that either.
"They want a couple of guys thinking real hard about building their boat and not much else. We let them come to the shop and watch their boat being built; we encourage frequent visits and phone calls. If we go big, we can't do that."
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