Farewell to a Friend: Dudley Boycott (1931-2018)
When Northern Bay sailmaking legend Dudley Boycott passed away last fall, we remembered this "Bay People" article written in 2007 by Jerry McCann. Yesterday, a reader reminded us of it... Boycott's life was well-lived, as this 12-year old #TBT Throwback Thursday article shows:
If you regularly sail the waters north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, you’ve probably heard of Dudley Boycott or been on, or raced against, a boat fitted with at least one of his sails. Boycott has been making and repairing sails for more than 50 years. He’s made 1277 to be exact—quite an achievement for a self-taught artisan who started part-time while working in the mills at Sparrows Point.
He and his trawler, Myth, have also become the symbol of the North Point Sailing Association (NPSA) races at the mouth of the Patapsco. On any given Wednesday night this year, half the NPSA racing fleet is either flying a Boycott sail or a sail repaired by him. The sailmaker is still going strong at the age of 84. When I first approached him about doing this article he immediately said, “Just don’t get me any more business. I’ve got too much work already.”
Boycott joined the Merchant Marines at the age of 18. In a few years, he earned a third mate’s license and spent World War II sailing on the bridge of Europe-bound ships, as well as sailing to Africa, India, and Russia. After the war, he sailed on Bethlehem Steel ships carrying steel to the West Coast. Between that stint and his WWII travels, he’s been through the Panama Canal 15 times.
In 1942, Boycott bought a 20-foot sailboat. The sails blew out in a week. One of the biggest and most well-known lofts at that time was William L. Godfrey’s on Frederick Street in Baltimore, known for building sails for the commercial skipjack and schooner fleets. Boycott became interested in the sailmaking process while watching Godfrey make his sails. He continued to go up and visit for years whenever he was in town between voyages. Boycott says, “You’ve got to have a desire for something first, and I guess I got some of that for sailmaking by hanging around Godfrey’s sail loft.”
After the war, Boycott delivered boats for the Owens Yacht Company, which included several trips to Florida. He’s operated “bum” boats moving crews around in the harbor. Then the arrival of a daughter in the family led to his taking a job at Sparrows Point in 1950.
He bought a new Flying Dutchman racing dinghy in the early 1950s. After ordering it from Holland, he and his wife Rose began receiving letters from the manufacturer explaining a series of delays. Boycott says, “We decided it seemed like a darned myth that it would ever get here.” When the boat finally arrived, they named it and every boat they’ve owned since, Myth.
He made his first sails in the mold-lofting floor of the shed at Young’s Boat Yard. During the 1950s, the yard’s founder, Harry Young, was building a 37-foot Alden motorsailer. Boycott’s Flying Dutchman had come with cotton sails, and he told Young he wanted to make sails for it someday. Young told Boycott that he could use his mezzanine lofting space to make his sails if he would also make the sails for the Alden. Eventually, he made 165 sails at Young’s.
When he first started as a sailmaker, Boycott didn’t like doing repairs. He found it more enjoyable to make something new from start to finish. But he learned that, “By doing repairs, you learn a heck of a lot about how other people do things.” He read everything that came along about sailmaking, but learned most from seeing other people’s work. “You mostly learn by making mistakes and fixing ‘em,” he says.
While working in the shed at Young’s, he built numerous sails for skippers in the local Alberg 30 fleet. He made mizzens, mains, and jibs for some of the first Whitby 42s that came down from Canada following the success of the Albergs.
He started a new list for the 1112 sails he’s made in the basement of the new house that he and Rose built in Edgemere, MD in 1965. The floor of his basement loft is 45 feet long by 26 feet wide. The needs of his lofting floor determined the dimensions of the house and required having the designer and builder move the staircase from the center to the end of the building.
In addition to the new house, there were several new boats. Between the Flying Dutchman named Myth and the current Myth (a 36-foot Marine Trader trawler), there has been a Rainbow, a 26-foot Kenner Privateer, and a Bristol 32. He bought his trawler in 1980 when he retired.
He started running the NPSA race committee boat in 1990 when he noticed they needed help. For a while his friend Ted Alfriend from Potapskut Sailing Association would help him run races, but he remembers that eventually he had to rig up a foot switch so he could single-handedly hoist signals and blow the starting horn at the same time. In recent years, Ken Rotan, his wife Dottie, and Charles Hampton have been regular helpers. Charlie Rouse, current commodore of the NPSA, says, “Dudley writes everything down. That’s one of the reasons he has been so valuable to our race committee.” Boycott and Myth have provided race committee services to 361 NPSA Wednesday evening races, eight NPSA night races, and 15 Potapskut SA races to Queenstown.
Boycott just delivered sail number 1111 on the new list to Maynard Lowery of Tilghman Island, who is known for his handmade Fenwick Williams wooden catboats. Sail number 1112 went to Phil Young, Harry Young’s son and current owner of Young’s Boat Yard. “Boats with Dudley’s sails compete well with boats equipped with sails from all the major lofts on the Chesapeake,” notes Phil.
I asked Boycott how many individual customers he has had, and he was surprised that the thought of counting the people on his list had not occurred to him. We did a quick estimate from his 14-page list and arrived at approximately 500 people. His lifetime total for sails is 1277, counting the 165 at Young’s and the 1112 in his basement loft. That indicates a fair number of satisfied customers. My guess is there are many more who will be added to the list.
About the Author: Jerry McCann lives in Lutherville and sails his 26-foot Pearson Commander, Natty Boh’t, out of Jones Creek and Old Road Bay near Sparrows Point. A native of the mid-west, he discovered sailing in 1997 and learned to sail at Baltimore’s Downtown Sailing Center. He’s learning to race under the friendly guidance of the members of the North Point Sailing Association.
