Business Section
by David Shaw
A new sign for Beaton Sails is mounted on the secondary story of the old building. Beaton Sails was started last year by Mark Beaton, 31, a sailmaker by trade.
As soon as you enter the shop, Tom Beaton, pausing from his work on a 1926 Herreshoff 15 damaged in a collision with a jet ski, glances over his shoulder to say hello.
In the past, Beatons' employed many craftsman to produce scores of boats ordered each year. But economic pressures and boaters preference for fiberglass diminishedtheir numbers. Now, only Beaton and Paul Smith, who's been with Beatons 25 years, work full time in the shop during the winters.
Beaton, 32, describes himself as a boat carpenter. With the aid from other craftsman he recently finished Wasp, the first A-Cat built in 57 years.
He, like his father Lachlan, 76, and his late grandfather, David, made the commitment to keep the wood shop at Beatons' open. Tom Beaton is the only member of the family actively involved in the workings of the repair shop.
"We keep a lot of the old wooden boats afloat," he says. "From a dollar stand point, it's not profitable. But it would be a shame to let the boats die out."
The A-Cats, 28 foot marconi-rigged catboats, may not have survived with out the help from the Beatons. A-Cat owners have been regular customers since the company began. Over the boat entrance in the shop is a cryptic question: Lotus Mast?
Beaton laughs at the bold yellow letters. "Oh, that? It's been there for about 25 years. We were working on a mast for the Lotus (an A-Cat) at the time, and I guess the owners didn't think we were moving fast enough. They snuk in and painted that one night." The Lotus eventually got its mast.
How did he learn his trade?
"Nobody in the family ever really thought about how to teach wooden boat building. I learned it more through osmosis. "Lally taught me a lot. He'd show you the stuff that you wouldn't think to ask."
The Beaton story began in 1924, when David Beaton left Scotland for America. He founded work at Morton Johnson's boatyard in Bay Head, NJ, and earned 90 cents an hour, a high wage for the time.
In 1926, he sent for his family. By 1929, he had formed the Mantoloking Boat and Engine Co., with two partners. By the mid-thirties, the partnership broke up and David Beaton bought watrefront land in Mantoloking to start his own business.
"He was right in the middle of the Depression, and he figured his six sons and four daughters, needed work and a boatyard would do it," Tom Beaton says.
Tom Beaton nods. "We used to build a lot of wooden boats for the BBYRA races(Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association). Wait a minute," he said. He retreived an old notebook and flips through the pages.
"It starts to die here," he says and runs his index finger across a page for 1968. "That's about the time fiberglass came in. My father said to my grandfather about that time,'If we're going to stay in business, we're going to have to get into storage and a marina,'" he says.
As orders for wooden Penguins, duckboats, sneakboxes, Comets, Lightnings, Diamonds, and Blue Jays dropped off, the Beatons gradually bought more land.
At present, they own the 8-acre boatyard and boardering wetlands, which they wany to preserve. They store between 500 and 600 sailboats, and have 50 slips at their marina, and plan to add at least 50 more slips. They also plan to open a marine supply store at the yard.
What would happen if an old sloop lost its original gaff and Tom Beaton weren't here? Or an A-Cat needed a tiller, rudder or centerboard repaired? Would the boater be out of luck?
Tom Beaton shrugs. "Yes, probably. They could get the work done up in Maine, though."
