In the April Classic Boat column on the Shirley M., you may remember that Bryer Davis mentions meeting someone named Mike Nonn through the Antique and Classic Boat Society. While working on restoring her family’s boat, Mike became a great mentor and friend to Bryer. When we heard that his classic wooden deadrise was named Y-Wood-U (as in ‘why would you buy a wooden boat?’), we knew we had to catch up with him to learn more. Because despite the name, Mike is a fiend for classic wooden boats.
“I’m always looking around on Facebook Marketplace,” he says. He saw this particular boat one day and was immediately attracted to her lines. She was beamy, kind of short, but really everything he was looking for. He owned a big 40-footer in the past and has always been a huge fan of deadrise boats.
He saw it for the first time in the middle of winter, in January of 2022. The boat was located in Oceanview, DE, and Mike says there were cool photos posted online. “I kind of wanted to go down and see it at the time,” he says. “It was a little pricey, but I still wanted to see the boat, so I contacted the woman a couple of days later and she said ‘Oh, I’m sorry, somebody came and bought it.’ So, that’s how it goes sometimes.”
Fast forward a bit and Mike was on Facebook Marketplace again and, lo and behold, he saw this pretty cool looking boat down in Pasadena. He ran down to look at it and was surprised to find that it was quite a bit cheaper than what he was expecting it to go for.
On closer inspection, however, he noticed a gaping hole cut into the side of the boat. The hole stretched for about seven feet along the port side all the way down to the chine with seven or eight ribs cut out. But Mike has been a woodworker his whole life. “I’m a wooden boat guy,” he says. “And I’m looking at it and thinking to myself, ‘yeah, Mike, you can patch that up.’”
So, what did he do? He bought the boat.
“I couldn’t really tell anybody I bought another wooden boat, and this one with a huge hole in the side of it, especially my family,” says Mike jokingly. He started working on the boat and was about a month into it when one day, while scrolling on his phone, he came across the photos of the boat he had found back in January. He hadn’t put two and two together, but he had bought the same boat he originally missed out on. “I’m looking at the transom and there’s Oceanview, DE, right there, so that was kind of neat.”
Mike spent about three months working on the boat to get it back in the water. “I had to commandeer my son,” he said. They spent weekends and would sneak out after work until she was all patched up. This was all to get the boat floating, but they still didn’t know if the motor ran. “I kind of bought it sight unseen; it was on the hard, so I didn’t really have a good way to test it,” he added.
They dropped it in the water around October with the whole family present to christen it properly. “We’ve been running around the Bay on it ever since,” says Mike.
Y-Wood-U has two hailing ports, according to Mike: they have a family property on the Severn River and recently bought a house in Stevensville on Kent Island. They run back and forth between the Eastern and Western Shore.
Once Mike got the boat fixed, he got involved with the Antique and Classic Boat Society (ACBS). “It’s a fantastic group,” he says. “I’ve met a ton of friends, like Bryer, and I also started a Facebook group called Chesapeake Wooden Deadrise Club; there are over 2500 members. I’ve made tons and tons of friends through this boat.”
“People who have wooden boats, they’re unique,” he added. “It takes a certain type of person to own them.”
Mike has been going to the ACBS show in St. Michaels for about three years, and he says it’s always a big push to get the boat “looking good” for the show. “But the whole family comes over, and friends (Hi, Chris), to redo the bottom paint and dress it all up,” says Mike.
But let’s rewind a bit. Y-Wood-U is 32 feet long with a little swim platform on the back and a 12.5-foot beam. She has a 3208 Cat Natural engine and doesn’t burn a lot of fuel, thankfully. She was built by the Goddard family in St. Mary’s County, MD, down by Piney Point. Wayne Goddard was the son of Poppa Francis, a legendary boat builder who built some of the last working buyboats down in Southern Maryland.
Years later when Mike bought the boat, for a substantial difference than what it originally went for, he thinks the previous owner was overwhelmed by the amount of work it needed. “The guy at the marina looked at me and said, ‘You know this boat is all wood, right?’ But I said, ‘It’s not scary to me.’ When I told my wife that I bought another wooden boat she said, ‘Why would you?’ So the name is a play on words; you’ve got to be a little bit crazy to own a wooden boat,” he says.
And as mentioned, the restoration took about three months, and Mike and his family did the work themselves. Most of the damage was due to topside water. Not from sitting in the water, but rather from rain and snow melt entering the topsides. “First you get a leak and the next thing you know you have rot,” says Mike.
When the boat was originally for sale, back in the winter, it was listed by a woman whose husband had recently passed away. Mike says, “He had done a lot of work on it. It was originally a commercial fishing boat, all white, and he built a lot of the interior, did some of the brightwork, had cushions made; it was his baby. But then the boat started sitting and once that happens, it’s a downhill process.”
The biggest thing now is staying on top of annual maintenance. “A fresh coat of paint, captains varnish, and you are good to go for the season,” he added. “My varnish is not quite a Hinckley finish, but it gets the job done.”
And because Mike is a woodworker and loves deadrises, he was never daunted by the prospect of owning and maintaining this boat.
When asked if he had any advice or insight for people considering a classic deadrise specifically, Mike had a few helpful points to keep in mind:
“These boats aren’t trailerable; they don’t leave the water, so you must be in a position to have a boat like that. There are tons of old wooden boats out there that are cheap, but if you’re paying someone else to do the work, it can get expensive.”
He also wanted to add that, “you don’t have to be a super skilled craftsman” to take one of these boats on. Mike is a big fan of Total Boat Products, and they have tons of tutorials and videos out there to help. He also loves the Tips from a Shipwright channel on YouTube which feature Master Shipwright Louis Sauzedde.
“If you can paint your bedroom, you can paint your boat,” he says. “Talk to someone who has one, join a club like the ACBS. That’s what we do; there’s a ton of people who would take you under their wing and help you.”
Through the club and his Facebook page Mike has connected with people such as George Hazzard at Wooden Boat Restoration and Hank Reiser of Pocahontas Marina (two names that should definitely be familiar to PropTalk readers) to share resources.
“Since I joined (the club), I have a tendency to try and draw people in who have similar Bay-built boats,” Mike says. “I have a Century Coronado that we are working on, too (and now the family will find out after reading this). But the Bay-built boats are what really do it for me. They always have.”
For Mike, it all started many years ago during a spring MSSA tournament. He was out trolling by the Bay Bridge in a little 21-foot center console with no T-top. It was sleeting and raining and “we were freezing to death,” Mike remembers. “Then, this big old wooden deadrise comes by, a 40-footer, and he was trolling about 25 rods with 10 guys in the cabin dry and warm drinking coffee and pointing at us. I said to my friend, ‘I need a boat like that. If we’re gonna be out here, that’s the boat I need.’”
From that center console Mike moved up to a Frank Dewey 40-footer with a big Detroit diesel. His family had so many adventures on that boat, and some of the fondest memories are their trips to Rock Hall to see the fireworks. They decided to “part ways” with that boat when the kids got older. Then he went eight to 10 years without one. He kept looking throughout the years but mentioned that he was very particular; he didn’t want something so big that he couldn’t handle it on his own. Y-Wood-U fits the bill perfectly. He knew he could handle just about anything on it, and because he took the time to fix it up, Mike says he’ll always be attached to it.
“It’s a great picnic boat, real beamy, and it has a nice little bar behind the helm. There’s a great array of cushions and chairs. We like to throw the anchor out in the middle of nowhere. I love spending time with my first mates, grandsons Trace and Westin. Hopefully it instills in them a love for the boat and perhaps the key to its longevity, similar to the Shirley M.
“It’s turn-key to have instant fun. Just add wood, then add the water.”
So, what’s next for Mike? His current project is Hilda, a wooden Hoopers Island draketail that he recently rescued from Kent Narrows. Someone had posted a photo of the boat on Mike’s Facebook group—it had a $500 price tag with the caveat that it was either that or the chainsaw. So, like any wooden boat enthusiast, Mike knew he had to save her. But that is a story for another time.
While Mike works on restoring and researching Hilda’s pedigree, he’s also spending every moment out on the Bay enjoying Y-Wood-U. Keep an eye out and you might just see her at an ACBS show in the future.
By Kaylie Jasinski