Jonathan Collett has built two boats and is working on his third.
So, what’s unusual about that, you ask?
Not much—we know people who have built dozens of boats—but Jonathan was just fourteen years old when he completed his second boat.
The grade eight student from St. John’s showed interest in boats at a very young age. There’s a drawing of the Titanic on a wall just off the household kitchen that Jonathan drew when he was only five. At about age seven he was building model boats, including one of an aircraft carrier, which he still has on display at home.
The attraction to vessel design goes back as far as Jonathan can remember, but he caught the boat-building bug while listening to his grandfather Max Collett. Originally from Harbour Buffett, Max often talked about growing up in Placentia Bay, especially about the different kinds of boats, their various designs, and why some were shaped differently than others. Max would explain how they were built and would draw sketches of different designs for Jonathan.
By the time he was eleven, Jonathan decided he had learned enough from his grandfather to take his boat-building interest to another level. He bought a catalogue from a marine store and learned about the various materials and things required to build a small plywood skiff.
Jonathan preparing to attach the bottom to his new boat.
The following summer, Jonathan, who seems more advanced than his years, decided it was time to try his hand at boat building. With the help of his grandfather Max, he had a nine-foot-ten-inch flat-bottomed boat ready for launching before school started in September.
Buoyed by the success of his first attempt at vessel construction, Jonathan was determined to build another one—only this time, all by himself.
His mom, Kim, had heard about the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador and inquired about its programs. Jonathan became a member of the WBMNL and attended its annual conference, where he was surrounded by dozens of boat-building enthusiasts. They took the young lad under their collective wing and treated him as one of them. Following that two-day event, Jonathan was more determined than ever and went back home to start work on details for his next construction. He officially launched his second boat during the museum’s annual conference in Glovertown in 2014.
Jonathan and friends from the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador launching his second boat.
The launching was a grand event. The weather co-operated nicely, with sunshine and, more importantly, just a light breeze. The conference delegates assembled at the Glovertown waterfront for their “Boats in the Harbour” show, which is an annual parade of wooden boats around the harbour of whatever town the conference is held in. Although the Boats in the Harbour event is a routine part of the museum’s annual conference, there was no mistaking that this one was special. As other boat owners were preparing their boats to leave the wharf, Jonathan and his stepdad, Randy, along with five fellow wooden boat builders, carried the little eight-foot-nine-inch flat-bottomed boat to the water, singing the traditional Newfoundland and Labrador boat-launching tune, “Johnny Poker,” also known in some regions as “The Jolly Poker.” Jonathan says he will never forget that tune, partly because it was sung during a very proud moment for him, perhaps one of the proudest in all his thirteen years at the time. He also laughs that he won’t forget it any time soon because his two younger sisters, Katie and Sophie, learned the tune and have been singing it ever since.
Kim says her son would probably not be so involved or as enthusiastic about building boats except for the fine folk of the Wooden Boat Museum who encourage and helped her son in every way they could.
If the spectators in Glovertown were worried that the little wooden boat that was introduced to Newfoundland and Labrador’s salt water on September 13, 2014, might spring a leak or might not have been a match for the mighty Atlantic Ocean, they wasted their energy. With a little help from parents Kim and Randy, Jonathan ran sea trials the night before in Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John’s, and everything checked out perfectly.
The sea trials at Quidi Vidi and the launch in Glovertown went well, but Jonathan admits that his second boat is “pretty cranky.” For the uninitiated in Newfoundland boat lore, cranky is the word for a boat that tips easily. Jonathan has a funny line from grandfather Max about just how cranky his boat is. “He said I’d better keep my tongue pointed straight—because if I turned it to either side, the boat might tip over.” A slight exaggeration, perhaps, but typical rural Newfoundland humour to make a point!
There were no leaks, and the small lop on the water didn’t seem to bother the boat or Jonathan as he rowed around Glovertown harbour to the delight of onlookers on the wharf.
Sea trials in Glovertown harbour.
Jonathan Collett was in grade six when he started his first boat. Now that he is an older and experienced builder in grade eight, it’s time to raise the bar. He was still not fully decided on what kind of boat was coming up next when I visited with him in late February, but a ten-and-a-half-foot sailboat with clinker planking was a strong contender.
There is no question about the family’s support for Jonathan when he starts construction on his third boat this spring as he converts the family garage into a boatyard, but Jonathan admits he’s going to have to make a tough decision soon. With two boats in storage now and a third one soon in the making, the backyard is starting to get a little crowded.
“I didn’t think of that, but pretty soon I’ll have to do something,” he says. He hasn’t had any purchase offers, and he is not sure how he would feel about selling one or both of his boats, anyway. That will likely be a family decision after a couple of serious conversations.
Jonathan smiles when asked how his buddies react to his boat-building interests. “They are all good with it,” he says, adding that when they see the boats and they become reality, they think it’s “pretty cool.”
Jonathan was featured in an article in the Wooden Boat Museum’s newsletter that caught the attention of David Taylor, a folklorist now living in the United States, who wrote the museum outlining an interesting link to Max Collett. While doing research for his Ph.D. program dealing with boat building in Newfoundland and Labrador, David came across an article written for the Newfoundland Quarterly by Jonathan’s grandfather in 1969, titled “The Harbour Buffett Motor Boat.” In the article, Max talked about some of the things that his grandson has heard many times.
We’ll stay in touch with Jonathan Collett because we think there is a good chance that he will continue to surprise us in the business of boats and boat building, regardless of his choice of career path in the future. At fourteen and in grade eight, a decision that important is best left for a later date. For now, Jonathan is happy just to learn as much as he can about wooden boat building and take it one step at a time.
*Author’s note: Since the time of that writing, Jonathan started building a kayak but didn’t like how things were going, so he decided to give up on that idea for the time being. The last time we checked with Kim, Jonathan was checking out drawings on a wooden “laser-type” boat.