Lyman, Chris-Craft, Bertram… these are names we all are probably very familiar with. But these days we don’t hear much about custom-built boats, let alone boats built in someone’s backyard. So, when Bryer Davis reached out about her grandfather’s classic home-built boat, I was immediately intrigued.
“My grandfather, George Miller, was a fourth generation Annapolitan and a home builder by trade,” says Bryer. “He embarked on a journey to build a boat; a task many said a home builder couldn’t do. A lot of folks said, ‘just because you can build a house doesn’t mean you can build a boat.’ He took that as a bit of challenge; he was very resourceful and wanted a boat for the family to enjoy. By 1960, he had built a beautiful boat in his backyard in Annapolis.
“Many years later, for my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary, he named the boat Shirley M. after my grandmother. She’s been the gem of our family for decades and across generations,” she says.
Her grandfather (she calls him Pop) started building the boat around Thanksgiving in 1958 or 1959 and had it in the water by Memorial Day. Can I just say, wow?! For someone who was not a boat builder by trade, that is impressive, to say the least.
It was a very mild winter that year, so George was able to keep working throughout the colder season. The yet unnamed boat did not have an engine for several months while she sat in the water, letting the bottom swell.
Much of the boat was built from reused and repurposed materials. The keel stem for example is from the former Trumpy Yacht Yard in Eastport. The hull is white cedar from a client’s home he had built and done renovations on. “He was very thrifty in his resources,” she says.
Bryer’s grandfather was an “Eastporter,” and he had a friend in the area who collected wooden boat models. When asked about the design of the Shirley M., she says, “My pop took this particular model that he liked and drew the boat plans from that; a foot to a quarter inch of this model, which is really cool, too.”
As mentioned, the boat was not named Shirley M. until Bryer’s grandparents’ 50th anniversary in 1999. Prior to that, it was always fondly referred to as the “big boat,” and that was “just in relation to the other little boats at the pier,” Bryer says.
Over the years her uncle, George Miller III, was a huge help to her grandfather. He took on managing the annual maintenance and work schedule as her grandfather got older. But he was always involved in some fashion, up until the last years of his life.
While boat work was often a “guy’s club,” with many of Bryer’s cousins, uncles, etc. all involved, Bryer decided to get more involved a few years ago and says she was really happy to be included in that alongside her grandfather for several years.
“I would go out with my grandfather just on really pleasant evenings, and he’d kind of show me the ropes,” she says. “It’s real quirky, so there were a lot of, ‘you gotta do these things in this order’ kind of instructions. Since then, we’ve done a full overhaul of the steering system and installed a new engine; it’s completely re-powered. It’s not as quirky, but of course still really fun.”
Because of those quirks and the fact that it was “Pop’s boat,” Bryer (along with her two uncles), was one of the few people besides her grandfather who ever drove the boat. As her grandfather got older, she was able to take more of an active role.
“He was so open and receptive to me wanting to learn,” she says, “so that was really a gift to be able to just cruise around with him for several years and take a real interest in it.”
When it comes to specifics, the Shirley M. is 29 feet long, and she has a Volvo Penta gas engine (chosen mostly for the lighter weight over a diesel counterpart). But that wasn’t the original engine. “I think the first engine cost him $500,” says Bryer. As you might remember, the boat did not have an engine for several months while the bottom swelled in the water, so Bryer’s grandparents “gave” the engine to each other for Christmas that year.
After that, she had all kinds of engines, according to Bryer. “I said he was resourceful; he was always using pieces from other things. At one point there was a Chrysler Slant in there,” she says. “He worked on it for years and years and it ran, but it wasn’t reliable.”
A few years ago the family began to realize that the Shirley M. would eventually need a full-scale restoration, and fast.
“My mom and her sister and brother, my grandparents’ three children, were really adamant about keeping it afloat so that he could look out his window until his last days and see the boat. It was his pride and joy,” says Bryer. “It took a full village to make sure that happened; the bilge pump was going off practically every hour on the hour. It was in dire shape.”
In 2023, Bryer’s grandfather sadly passed away. At that time, the Shirley M. was “just barely floating.”
With his passing came the question of what to do with the boat—salvage, donate it, or sell it? But Bryer says it really broke her heart to think of someone outside of the family enjoying it. So, they began discussing “doing the work that needed to be done” so they could save the boat that had meant so much to their family over the years.
Two of the biggest priorities were making sure she was seaworthy and had a really good, reliable engine. A ton of structural work around the chine area on the hull had to be done, and the steering system was in dire need of replacement. Bryer shared how the steering cables were frayed so badly in some places that you’d be nervous to turn the boat too hard for fear of them breaking completely. It was just a matter of finding the right person for the job.
Bryer says they enlisted Dennis Elzey of Elzey Custom Boats in Cambridge, MD, who took the Shirley M. for about eight months. “It was a big project,” she says. “A huge learning experience. When it came down to the family discussions, there were a lot of pros and cons and some reality checks along the way, of course. But at the end of the day, it’s such a gift and we’re thrilled to have been able to keep it in the family.”
The reality checks came in the form of identifying a budget and finding someone who could work within that budget. But for this family, “the sentimental value was almost priceless.”
Bryer shared how she met a guy named Mike Nan through the Antique and Classic Boat Society. He has a really cool classic wooden boat, and Bryer says he named it Y-Wood-U, namely because that’s what a lot of people tend to say when you buy a wooden boat. But Bryer says he’s become a really great mentor and friend throughout the restoration process.
“There’s not a lot of people working on wooden boats anymore in the region,” she says. “We’re losing that institutional knowledge, so crowdsourcing has been really helpful for us. And I think that’s how this community really thrives.”
Bryer met Mike at the Antique and Classic Boat Festival in St. Michaels a few years ago while the boat restoration was still underway. She was hoping to make some connections and look at boats, and then last year, as exhibitors, they were thrilled to win the Platinum Award for Restoration.
“It was very validating of the project,” she says.
These days, there’s no shortage of fun to be had by the entire family on the Shirley M.; they couldn’t be happier with their decision to undergo the restoration.
“We’ve had so many special occasions just in the last year alone,” says Bryer. “Birthdays, 50th wedding anniversary cruises, summer celebrations, just all kinds of fun. I think my grandparents would be so happy to know how much we still use it.”
For Bryer, this past summer was all about gaining some confidence and getting more comfortable with the boat, taking small groups out, seeing what felt right. They even had a little Blessing of the Boat ceremony by Deacon Moore, who was good friends with her grandfather. That was a very special moment for the family.
While they haven’t gotten out fishing or crabbing yet, Bryer says she hopes to soon. “I’ve caught some of the biggest fish of my life on that boat with my grandfather and some of his friends, so that’s on the to-do list for sure.”
It had been some time since the boat was seaworthy enough to traverse many of the creeks and coves on the Bay, so even short rides have been a real treat. And Bryer says that when they are out cruising, they often get questions about the boat’s pedigree.
“I take it as a point of privilege and pride,” she says “because people recognize how beautiful the boat is; it’s one of one. There have been so many times, like if we’re docked at The Fleet Reserve Club, where people will come around, and you can feel a little embarrassed by the attention, but again, I take it as a real point of pride. People come over and take pictures and ask questions, so there is definitely an interest in what kind of boat it is.”
For Bryer, one of the coolest moments she witnessed was on a trip down Ego Alley with her grandfather. She says, “He was driving the boat and someone yelled from The Fleet, ‘What kind of boat is that?’ And he kind of reached out from the helm and just waved at him, and he had the biggest smile on his face, and he said, so proudly, ‘I built it!’”
“It was like another child in his life,” she added. “He loved this boat.”
And it’s clear that the next generation of this family loves the boat just as much. So many people have had a hand in both the upkeep and enjoyment of this vessel. Bryer has taken on a few small projects herself recently as she says, “to have a little sweat equity in the process.” She restored the cabin doors back to their original varnish, removing decades of paint... a tedious project she thought might break her at one point, but overall was “extremely cathartic.” Bryer also refurbished a lot of the original fixtures, including porthole windows that had been painted over, tarnished steering mechanisms, and other fixtures. She even gold leafed the original name quarterboard to give it a new, bright life.
“We wanted to keep as many of the original aspects of the boat as possible,” she says.
And while there will always be work that needs to be done, Bryer and her family are so thankful that they were able to save the Shirley M. in time. And not just save her but restore her to Bristol condition. More than anything, she is so grateful for the time she was able to spend with her grandfather on the water. And even though he has passed away, Bryer says, “I feel connected to him every time I step aboard.”
As someone who wishes I had restored my own grandfather’s boat before it was sadly beyond repair, I can’t think of a better or more heartwarming reason to undertake a project such as this. We want to wish Bryer and her family many more years of fabulous memories aboard their beautifully restored classic boat.
By Kaylie Jasinski