John Kinnamon of Kinnamon Construction of Tilghman Island, Md., has completed the Bourbon Street Lady, a 35' x 11' glass-over-wood deadrise that he has built for himself.
Kinnamon, 82, built his boat to use in Maryland’s trotline blue crab fishery. The boat was built in his boatshop next to his home, located just before crossing the bridge leading into Tilghman Island.
He built it there so as not to tie up his son’s boatshop, located just on the other side of the bridge on the island. J.C. and John Kinnamon are swamped with work. The past three years they have turned out four or five new deadrise workboats annually, mostly for Virginia oystermen and crab pot fishermen.
The father-son team works together building boats. But during the trotline season, they take off to work their own rigs. John’s new boat is named in honor of his memories as a sailor stationed in New Orleans.
“I joined the Navy in 1954. My last duty was in New Orleans on a (DE) destroyer escort vessel,” says John. “We were tied up at the foot of Canal Street, and in evenings these Bourbon Street ladies would come down to the wharf. When I started thinking of a name for my new boat that popped into my head,” he said with a chuckle.
John had the name painter apply “Bourbon Street Lady” in black and had it outlined in pink on the stern. He ordered pink “Kinnamon” decals and placed one on the port side and another on the starboard side just forward of the stern.
J.C. said his father has already had a waterman come by asking if the Bourdon Street Lady was for sale. “I told him it was not for sale,” says John.
“Yeah right!” Says J.C. “Tell him about the cigar box. That boat wasn’t for sale either.”
John spun a tale from 20 years earlier when he had built a deadrise for himself and had a waterman come by wanting to buy the boat.
“I told him no amount of money could buy her,” says John. “Next day, that watermen came back and put a cigar box full of cash money down on my kitchen table. After I counted it, I couldn’t say sold fast enough!”
A glass-over-wood deadrise underway in J.C.’s shop is a 38' x 12' for David Parks of Morattico, Va. Parks is going to use the boat in the Chesapeake Bay oyster and crab pot fisheries. It will be powered by a six-cylinder Cummins diesel. The Bourbon Street Lady will be powered by a 4-cylinder, 150-hp John Deere diesel engine.
On Parks’ boat, the bottom and side frames are built with 1 1/2" x 4" fir lumber. The framing in the bottom and sides is covered with 1/2" AC marine plywood. The hull is coated with four layers of matt and woven and decks have three layers.
The floor frames are made of 1 1/2" x 8" fir boards and are placed every 16-inches. The floor or ceiling as it is called in the Chesapeake region is made from 5/8" fir and is covered with three layers of fiberglass.
