Thomas Fabrication & Boatworks
P.O. Box 1158 Soda Springs, CA 95728
(530)515-7543

Wooden boat restoration specialist - Thomas Fabrication and Boatworks
Steve Thomas drives a restored Fay & Bowen launch on Lake Tahoe.

BY BROOKS TOWNES

Steven Thomas sat basking in sunshine and success aboard a 32’ Albany triple-cockpit runabout at Lake Tahoe Yacht Club’s Concourse d’Elegance. He’d just restored the 1923 Albany in partnership with Alan Firth, president of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (the old Southern Pacific Railroad). Life was sweet for Steven Thomas that day, and it was about to get sweeter.

“I was sitting in the boat, and Tom Gentry came up with a couple of other people. They were all dressed in mountain biking clothes. He asked me if the boat was for sale,” Thomas said. (The Albany, incidentally, is one of only three then listed in the Antique & Classic Boat Society registry; it is powered by a Scripps straight six, making nearly 3oo hp.) It was indeed for sale and Gentry bought it on the spot. “I just about went through the ceiling of the boat!” Thomas said. “Here I was face to face with a real celebrity in my world, and…!”

Picture right. Thomas poses next to a replanking job.

Gentry, a Honolulu millionaire real estate developer, was a varsity offshore powerboat racer who was starting to collect old boats. At the time, he held the super boat speed record of 148.238 mph and was trying for 150 mph. He was a big name in offshore racing and on Lake Tahoe, partly because that’s where he began his boat-racing career. In contrast---even his restorations had been winning awards---Steve Thomas was from Redding, California, a fair sized city near Lake Shasta that’s often confused by big city folks with Red Bluff, a cow town. “At Tahoe some thought I sleep in a shack with my dog,” Thomas grinned. Still, meeting Gentry was something of an event.

Gentry had plans: He intended to build an enviable collection of classic and antique powerboats and create a museum for them in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or may be Las Vegas. Thomas, though star-struck, told Gentry he wanted to be a part of that plan---“and he hired me on the spot.”

The relationship went well. Gentry gave Thomas so much business he practically became the Redding’s shop’s only customer. At one time, Thomas pointed to six Gentry boats sitting in his shop that were worth all in all some $500,000---and Gentry did not rush the restoration work or want any corners cut. He was the patron restorers dream of. It all went very nicely until 1995 when Gentry flipped a race boat off Key West and was pinned underwater for more than three minutes. He was rescued, but remained in a coma until his death two years later. It was tough losing a pal and patron like Gentry. Thomas missed his friend---and his own future seemed to roll onto its beam-ends: Gentry had told Thomas he wanted him to run the museum. “He was going to have his race boats in there and the antiques as well. It could have been a life-ling thing. I looked forward to running that museum. He was going to move me down to Southern California or Vegas…. I’d put all my eggs in one basket, but for a gamble like that I’d do it again---in a second,” said Thomas. “It took a while to spool up again after Gentry’s demise. I worked for Tom for almost two years and didn’t take any local work in, therefore the other shops picked up the clients.”

During their too-short relationship of some 18 months, Thomas refinished or totally restored for Gentry a 1924 Fay & Bowen launch (Thomas’s second Fay & Bowen job), a 1913 Fry launch, a 1922 26’ Hacker Gold Cup racer, a 1934 18’ Electra Craft canoe-sterned electric launch with a surrey top, and a 1928 32’ Vonderworth commuter, and he maintained the Albany.

Picture right: A 1923 Albany triple-cockpit runabout rests in the shop. Restored by Steve Thomas, in partnership with Alan Firth, the 32' boat shifted Thomas's career into high gear.

Starting Over

When word spread that Thomas Fabrication & Boatworks was available again, it didn’t take long for new business to appear, and this summer Thomas said this is the best business year he’s ever had, with boats coming from near and far for new bottoms, total restorations or rebuilds----even for just a plank repair or varnish. Without sounding boastful, Thomas said, “I’ve had stuff go all over North America, and stuff sent in form Florida, Washington D.C., New York, Canada, Illinois. It’s really flattering when you consider there are probably a couple hundred restoration shops in this country, maybe more.”

Picture right: This 1954 Chris-Craft Racing Runabout, another Thomas restoration, won first place at Lake Tahoe Yacht Club's Concours d'Elegance.

His boats have taken numerous first-place prizes at prestigious judgings. Several have won first place in their categories at Lake Tahoe. “Last year, three boats I did won a first, second and a third in three separate classes.” A 1954 19’ Chris-Craft Racing Runabout took first in its class, a 1964 19’ Century Utility took second in its category, and a 1914 Fay & Bowen launch snagged third in another class. It is startling to learn that Thomas started out building aluminum-sided travel trailers and motor homes. That was in his dad’s retirement business where Thomas began working as a teenager. By his early 20’s he’d gone out on his own building aluminum-sided houseboats---not those rentals called “kamikaze” houseboats on pontoons that always seem to be aiming at your prized woody, but a swanky summer-home houseboats costing up to $100,000 and measuring 15’ x 56’ and a couple of stories tall.

Though it still seems like quite a leap from those things to making pristine a 1914 Fay & Bowen launch, Thomas made it sound simple: “I sort of slid out of houseboats and hooked up with Art Knolte,” a respected Redding boat builder. All sorts of work came into Thomas’s boat works, including wooden boat repairs from Lake Shasta, which Thomas took to Knolte’s shop “and Knolte kept me from screwing things up. When Art retired, I took over where he left off repairing and refinishing boats for his old customers.

Mainly, I’m self-taught. I read and subscribe to everything I can find, and talk to other restorers. One nice thing about this business is we all share our problems and answers. I love the work.” He told a local reporter, “It’s a privilege to work on these boats. We are preserving history. What we do will be around forever, barring some disaster.”

Thomas has completed over 40 major restorations had won ten first place in concourse judgings before this summer---two more of his boats were entered at this year’s Tahoe concourse---plus some 80 more boats have gone through his shop for simple repairs and refinishing.

Picture above: Thomas prepared this Old Town canoe for Tahoe's Concours d'Elegance. He replaced the original canvas with 6 oz. fiberglass and finished the hull bright, although he expected to be "nailed" for the modifications.

Article reprinted from WoodenBoat Magazine® March/April 2000

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