Here's to 150 years of family, craftsmanship and love of the water.
In 1875, brothers Bernard Lyman and Herman Lyman founded the Lyman Brothers Boat Builders and Lyman Boat Works in Cleveland. Now, 150 years later, Lyman love is still going strong. Lymans were built specifically for the waves of Lake Erie and surrounding lakes, and the wooden boats’ impact on boating culture, especially locally, is considerable.
There are many Lymans still in use today, some having been passed down through generations and restored. Other families may acquire their Lymans from a reseller, often accompanied by an oral history of the family who owned it before them. In fact, so beloved are Lyman Boats that finally, new Lymans are again being made — one at a time, by hand, just the way Bernard and Herman intended.
Preserving History
Pat Dietrich of Sandusky Bay Marine Association grew up around the boats he now repairs and restores. Dietrich’s father owned Vacation Land Marina (now Venetian Marina) in Sandusky, just down the street from Lyman Boat Works. While the Dietrich’s marina did not sell Lymans (they were too close to the factory to be given a dealership, Pat explains), Pat and his dad did haul boats for the company.
“I remember getting boats loaded on the trailer,” he says. “I made a lot of trips to New York and Connecticut and out on Long Island, up in that area, delivering boats.”
In addition to hauling them, Pat was surrounded by Lymans growing up, he recalls. “Having the marina, we had a lot of customers who had Lyman boats and would dock them at the marina, but that’s all I knew about them. I didn’t know the construction or anything like that.”
That would change in 1980 when, fresh out of high school, Dietrich stopped by to visit then-owner of Don Forrest Inc., Don Forrest, who was restoring Lymans in a space he rented from Pat’s father. “I said, ‘Do you need help?’ and he said, ‘Well, as a matter of fact, I do.’ So, 45 years later, here I am.”
Dietrich worked for Forrest for 14 years before taking over the business, where he estimates that 99% of the work he does is on Lyman Boats. His customers come from as far away as Texas.
Dietrich notes that the legacy of Lymans is carried on in his business through some of the customers he serves. “I’ve got customers that I’ve had for years — I mean even going back to when Don had the business when I was working for him,” he says.
When asked why Lymans have maintained their popularity for a century and a half, Dietrich explains, “I always say they’re built on Lake Erie for Lake Erie, and nothing rides like a Lyman. But that’s not the whole reason — it’s the design. The boats just have great lines and the lapstrake construction is a part of that. They’re just unique boats. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of them that didn’t survive, but there’s a lot of them that were ready for the boneyard that we brought back.”
Deitrich uses tools like the ones at the original factory. “If we take planks out, that [plank] is my pattern to make the new planks off of. You can’t just pick one up off the shelf,”he says.
A man who grew up on a marina and is now a sought-after Lyman repairman, Dietrich muses, “I’ve got Lake Erie running in my veins, so it seems only fitting that I’m working on Lymans.”
Continuing the Legacy
Boaters who can’t get their hands on an original Lyman now have a chance to own an official Lyman made using original blueprints and updated to meet current boating regulations. Nate Sublett founded Chippewa Boatworks during the COVID pandemic, when his company needed to pivot, he explains.
“My company, Benchmark, has been around for many years,” Sublett says. “We design and build exhibits for museums and trade shows and also high-end interiors. When COVID hit, museums closed up and shows stopped. I had a crew of guys here who are highly skilled craftsman, and me being a totally committed boat guy and a lover of wooden boats decided, ‘Well, let’s put these guys to work building a few boats.’”
Sublett now has two businesses: Benchmark and Chippewa Boatworks. “The reason for that is we’re right close to Chippewa Lake where all the boats get their first sea trials in.”
Sublett became a “totally committed boat guy” thanks to his wife Susan’s grandfather, Bill Reese. Nate and Susan were middle school sweethearts, and he joined her family at Pelee Island on Bill’s Lyman beginning in 1968. By the time Sublett was 30 and he and Sue had three kids, Bill’s Lyman was so well-loved and frequently used that “it became a flowerpot in front of our cottage,” Sublett shares. The family had other boats after that, but “the Lyman had always stuck in my mind. I always loved the way it looked and the fun that we had on that boat. It’s something that I wanted to continue,” he says.
In addition to the skilled craftsmen who were already on hand, Sublett hired Kurt Cerny, a marine architect who grew up in North Olmsted and is now based in Annapolis, Maryland. “Kurt came here, and we went down to [see] Doc Lyman’s (Tom Koroknay’s) amazing collection of drawings from the Lyman factory that he rescued when the factory closed down,” says Sublett.
The team settled on a drawing for a 1957,16-and-a-half-foot Lyman as the inspiration for the boat. “Kurt did a fantastic job of redesigning the hull so it has all the handling features that we were looking to get, including the legendary great handling for short chops of Lake Erie that Lyman was famous for. But [the newly built ones] handle even better, and the boats meet all the current Coast Guard standards for small boats,” Sublett says.
Chippewa Boatworks has made five Lymans in the last two years, and Sublett hopes to ramp up that number to two boats per month. Cerny, the architect, is updating some old plans for a 23-foot version. Boats are made to order, Sublett notes.
“We offer a list of options that they can choose from. The hull is what it is, but we can fit out the interior as a runabout or as a center console or as a tender, and then all the other things that go along with it; the electronics, a depth sounder GPS on it, 50 horsepower or 70 horsepower outboard motor — all the things that people would want to make it their personal boat. Our customers are involved in the process from the beginning to end, and they get the boat that they really want, with all the craftsmanship the Lyman has, but taking advantage of the new technology and new materials that we can put to use.”
The Lyman community, while a little hesitant at first, has really embraced these brand-new, classic Lymans as the real deal, says Sublett, and he couldn’t be happier about it.
“I’m a little cabinet-builder that always thought that boat building was the pinnacle of my craft,” he summarizes. “I like to call it a forever boat, but I know things don’t last forever. We’re just trying to build a boat that people will be proud to own and have a lot of fun with and really spend high quality time on the water with their families and their loved ones. That’s the goal.”
Want to celebrate the 150th birthday of Lyman Boat Works?
There are lots of options. The sesquicentennial kicked off with a 10,000-square-foot Lyman Museum display at January’s Progressive Cleveland Boat Show. If you missed that, no worries — there’s more to come.
“Going forward throughout the year, many antique boat shows, actually throughout the country, will be celebrating Lyman and the 150th,” says Michelle Burke, president of the Ohio Marine Trades Association (OMTA).
The Antique Boat Museum in Thousand Islands, New York, will spotlight Lyman Boat Works as part of its 61st annual Antique Boat Show and Auction (Aug. 1-3).
The Lakeside Wooden Boat Show and the Maritime Museum of Sandusky will also have special displays.
Show your Lyman Love with a graphic tee that commemorates Lyman through the ages. Clothing and accessory company Lyman Life and Cleveland’s GV Art + Design teamed up to create four terrific styles you can wear for years to come
