Better-Built Barbours

Bern, Herbert W. Barbour opened his New River in North Carolina, boatyard on the Trent 1933, building and repairing small commercial catering to vessels. It was a modest operation, Few could the local fishing fleet and harbor craft. and his have foretold that decades later Barbour force” that company would be hailed as a “vital of was “important to the economic landscape coastal North Carolina.” build resBarbour Boats won a Navy contract to dur - cue boats, then built wooden minesweepers to eming World War II. The company had grown built tugploy 1,200 people, and after the war it for North boats for the Coast Guard and ferries Carolina’s Department of Transportation. for the But Barbour is perhaps best known powerboats pleasure craft it built — 16- to 21-foot and with “lapstrake planking, quality mahogany over mahogany plywood, and the finest chrome and cabin brass hardware.” There were open demodels, inboard- and outboard-powered, cruising. signed for water-skiing, fishing and a noThere was the 15-foot Vacationer Deluxe, a windfrills runabout with wheel steering and had shield. The sportier 16-foot Silver Clipper seat and a an outboard in a well, a split forward series also mahogany deck. The Silver Clipper a 22-foot included a pair of cabin models and said was hardtop fishing boat that the company The 19-foot “roomy, rugged and smooth riding.” below Cruiser had a cuddy with a pair of bunks sat on a and a forward hatch, and the skipper windshield. pedestal seat behind a wood-framed Prices ranged from about $3,000 to $8,000. and Herbert Barbour continued designing age 75. An building boats until he died in 1957 at Barbour for obituary in Boating magazine hailed his trade his “craftsmanship, hard work, love of and business sense.” — Steve Knauth