John C. Kinnamon Sr., 84, and his son J.C., 53, of Tilghman Island, Md., are still turning out glass-over-wood Chesapeake Bay deadrise workboats for Chesapeake and Delaware bays watermen.
J.C. currently has two boats underway. He is working out of two boat shops—one in a building that he leases on Tilghman Island and the other in his father’s shop, located just before crossing the Tilghman Island drawbridge onto the island.
At John’s shop, J.C. has a 32’ x 11’ hull yet to be turned over for White Stone, Va. oysterman George Verlander. It will be used in Virginia’s public and private oyster dredge fisheries. “We have had many boats go right to Virginia to work in the oyster fishery,” says J.C. “That fishery has kept us busy.”
At his boat shop on Tilghman Island, J.C. also has a boat nearly ready for delivery. The 28’ x 9’ deadrise, named In A Meeting, is outboard-powered and is going to a Maryland pleasure boat owner.
Helping with the finishing touches on that boat was 70-year-old trotliner Allen Faulkner of Tilghman Island. Faulkner is on J.C.’s waiting list to have a boat built. “J.C. builds a good boat that we watermen can afford,” said Faulkner. “I am at an age that I want a boat I can count on to work, if I want to work, or to just wet a fishing line, if that’s what I want to do.”
John Sr. mainly does repair work on fiberglass boats while working a trotline in Maryland’s blue crab trotline fishery. Visiting his home and boat shop on Thursday, October 10, was John Tierno Jr., Pittsgrove, N. J., who owns Dad’s Seafood in Vineland, N. J.
Tierno wanted National Fisherman to know that John Sr. built two commercial crab boats for him. The first was a 32-foot solid glass hull deadrise completed in 2000 and powered by a John Deere 225 hp diesel engine. Tierno replaced the 32-footer in 2011 with a solid glass hull Kinnamon 43-footer powered by a 3126 Caterpillar diesel. That boat is being worked on today in Delaware Bay.
“We needed a larger boat and we were well satisfied with the 32-footer that John built for us,” said Tierno. “We went back to John for our second boat because we knew he does great work.” Tierno uses the Kinnamon 43 to fish crab pots in Delaware Bay. “I started commercial crabbing in 1994, opened the seafood store in 2002, and Kinnamon’s boats have provided a solid platform for us to work and make a living,” he said.
“It is not that easy to find working watermen who are boatbuilders too and have an understanding of what a waterman needs in a boat,” said Tierno. “John and J.C. come from working the water and they understand the workboat business."
