At de Rouville's, Wooden Boats Are Passion

From Chelsea Avenue, the entrance at 207 Chelsea looks like just another residential driveway. But as you travel down the crushed shell drive, a narrow tree-lined lane suddenly gives way to a wide open space filled with boats, and canopies protecting boats in various stages of work.

Some are fiberglass-hulled sportfishing boats. There’s a lobsterman’s boat, and even some canoes and kayaks as well. At de Rouville’s Boat Shop, boats of all kinds are welcomed for service.

Dominating the scene, however, are the tall masts of the wooden boats. Wooden boats are Bill de Rouville’s passion, and it’s this passion that brings customers – especially members of the Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association – back time and again, for service, repairs and even to have boats built.

“There’s a lot you can do with wood that I think is lacking with fiberglass,” de Rouville said in a recent interview.

There are sailing nuances with wooden-hulled boats that don’t exist with their fiberglass and metal counterparts, he said. And that's why he loves them.

It’s a passion shared by those who work at the shop, too. Much of the business is a family affair: Bill’s niece, Sherri, manages the office, while Bill’s son, Bill Jr., and daughter, Kerri, work on the boats.

While Bill de Rouville grew up sailing – sneakboxes on Barnegat Bay, racing Lightnings with his uncle in New England – it was a family hobby; his father was in the land-clearing business. So de Rouville’s foray into boat building and repair was born from his love of working with the boats.

“I knew it was a great field to work in,” he said. “I can’t imagine another career.”

He worked at the Toms River Boat Works, near the marine railway. He was the shop manager there in the 1990s. The opportunity arose for him to take over the boat shop completely, and he ran the shop in Toms River for a time before a change of owners resulted in him moving the business to Lanoka Harbor. They moved to their present site, the old Stump Creek Spillways, in October 2004, and the business continues to thrive.

“We service the whole spectrum of boats,” Bill  de Rouville said.

The entire boat shop crew has a passion for the wooden ones. That includes George Schuld and Brent Wagner, key members of the shop’s staff.

It was Wagner and Schuld who helped build the Witch, an A-Cat boat that is one of the oldest styles of racing sailboats on Barnegat Bay.

“We got a set of plans and we did a lot of custom work on the boat,” including the spurs and other hardware, de Rouville said. It helped that Schuld had a history of racing A Cats.

Wagner, who summered “around the corner” from the shop’s location, sailed too. He joined the shop in a part-time capacity and 13 years later loves what he’s doing.

He and Schuld made sure the boat really fit the A Cat style and model. The result: in the nine years since she was built, Witch has won the BBYRA’s Nelson R. Hartranft Trophy six times with two different skippers.

The quality of their work is lauded frequently on the shop’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/deRBoatShopNJ, and they post photos of ongoing projects there as well.

“We always have a backlog of projects,” Bill deRouville said.

The boat shop is generally open six days a week.

“I stick to regular business hours, and I try to force a break in August," he said.

That said, they do have a crew member who lives on-site at the boat works and is available if an emergency arises.

One year, “Spy had gone out to race and they discovered her centerboard was jammed,” de Rouville said.

The centerboard is important because it allows the boat to sail in different water depths. So the shop took the boat in and repaired her to get her back into the water quickly.

They also do touch-ups or repairs when a windy day on the mooring field or a mild collision during a race occurs.

Preparing the boats for the spring launch can take as much as 120 hours, including sanding, varnishing and more, de Rouville said.

This August wasn’t as restful as others. The end of the month was spent pulling nearly 60 boats out of the water in advance of Hurricane Irene. The staff then took Labor Day weekend off for a rest.

If you’re looking for a place that treats its boats and customers as family, take the ride down the shell-lined drive and meet them for yourself. It’s likely you’ll find yourself becoming one of the family.