Bristol Bronze Makes Marine Hardware for Classic Boats and More

Roger Winiarski has been in the metals industry for nearly 50 years. After leaving the Navy, he worked for several of the large copper and brass companies as a sales engineer.

Winiarski also loves classic boats, owning both Candy Class no. 1, Lollipop, and the Herreshoff S-boat, Resolute, no. 858. This was the 17th S-boat built at the Bristol shop, and was launched in September 1920, when another Herreshoff boat named Resolute was defending the America’s Cup just down the Bay in the waters off of Newport.

About 25 years ago, when looking for a fitting for his Resolute, Winiarski was told, “You can’t buy one of those. Take one of these plastic ones, it’ll work just fine.”

So Winiarski decided to take his knowledge of metallurgy and said to himself, “if I can’t buy it, I’ll make it.”

Winiarski said when he then took Resolute to local regattas, fellow S-boat owners would see the shiny new fittings and ask where he got them. When they found out he made them, they would ask if he could make one for them, too.

That was the start of , part time in Winiarski’s basement. Now in its 22nd year, Winiarski offers over 800 parts in his catalog and ships products all over the world. In addition to local, regional and national boatbuilders which use Bristol Bronze fittings and whose names you might recognize, Winiarski recently sent shipments to Capetown, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; Christ Church, New Zealand and Nova Scotia, Canada, just to name a few.

Bristol Bronze has also provided fittings for such well-known projects as the 72’ schooner Lion’s Whelp, built at Portland Yacht Services in Portland, Maine; the 140’ replica of the Schooner America; and the recent restoration of the 49’ Q-class sloop Cotton Blossom by Dennis Connor, four-time America’s Cup winner.

Winiarski tells the story of the beginning of the project with Connor with humility. He recalled getting a catalog request from someone named Dennis Connor and thought to himself, “no, it can’t be.”

But the next day, he found out it was, indeed, the famous yachtsman. Connor had asked of Halsey Herreshoff where he might obtain quality fittings for Cotton Blossom, and Herreshoff had recommended Winiarski.

Bristol Bronze also helped out with a project at the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, providing proper period fittings for the rebuild of an 1886 catboat named Daisy. When completed, Winiarski recalled holding a black and white photo of Daisy in the water taken in 1886 and stood looking at the boat from the same position as the photographer was in 1886 and he said “she looked exactly the same as she did in 1886.”

“And that’s the way it should be,” he said.

Another story Winiarski tells is of a customer who came to him after visiting a marine store near where he lived and asking for a sliding gooseneck for a 20’ catboat. The salesperson brought him an aluminum spinnaker pole fitting.

When he called Bristol Bronze, Winiarski asked if he was looking for a fixed or sliding gooseneck, and also what size. When the man came to pick up the gooseneck, he bought several other fittings for the boat.

Bristol Bronze is also providing the fittings for the replacement of seventeen Wianno Seniors which were destroyed by fire at a Cape Cod boat yard in 2003.  The Wianno Senior is best known for one of the class’s most famous sailors, President John Kennedy, who sailed Victura, Wianno Senior no. 94.

And each package that leaves the shop does so with an American flag label on the box. “People are wanting to buy American-made now, because they are tired of the poor quality of the foreign made fittings.”

Winiarski noted that when your life depends upon a fitting at sea, when Murphy’s Law is at its worst, you want the best fitting not the cheapest. He went on to explain that in marine hardware, there are certain alloys which are suited for certain uses, just like in building a wooden boat, there are certain woods for certain applications.

There are seven different alloys used in the range of products at Bristol Bronze, depending upon the application, including a hi-tensile alloy for applications like turnbuckles and other fittings which might find themselves under the heavy load of a large mainsail.

"You want to use the alloy that best suits the function for which the fitting is going to serve," said Winiarski.

If you are in the market for high quality marine fittings, or even bronze fittings for your home or office project, such as drawer pulls, hinges or coat hooks, or if you have an idea for a special accent piece cast in bronze for your home, Bristol Bronze is the place to go. Contact Roger Winiarski at Bristol Bronze at 401-625-5224, or check out their Web site at www.bristolbronze.com.