THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510170070
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: EARNING A LIVING IN VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
For Parks Atkinson it was now or never.
At 41 and single, Atkinson figured now was the time to do what he's really wanted to do for the past 10 years - build boats.
In April he started Parks Atkinson's Boat Restorers.
In his commercial space off Birdneck Road, he has the skeleton of a Carolina-style, 28-foot power fishing boat already in the works.
``I've had this in mind for 10 years,'' Atkinson said. ``It's always been a hobby and I'd like to make it a career.''
The unnamed boat's jig or pattern is just about ready for a layer of C-Flex, a product made of fiberglass and rods that's eventually coated in resin. Seven layers of fiberglass will follow and then there will be a layer or two of paint.
Atkinson has spent about 44 hours on the boat so far. In another two months, with the assistance of a helper, the boat's hull will be complete and Atkinson will hitch it to a trailer and ride it around to find a buyer willing to pay $79,000, which includes the diesel engine.
Atkinson prefers to leave the design of the innards, as well as the boat's name, up to the buyer.
He can make any custom feature a customer wants from fly bridges to fish cabinets to the interior cabin.
He can make any size boat from a kayak or canoe up to a 60-footer. He can make them with inboard or outboard engines or a combination of both.
He prefers to design boats that will be used for pleasure or commercial fishing.
``I can customize it exactly the way a fisherman wants it,'' said Atkinson, a Sandbridge resident. ``With production boats, you get exactly what everyone else gets.''
Atkinson has employed the likes of a marine architect to help design the boats he plans to build. The Louisiana architect, also the inventor of the fiberglass C-Flex material, designs a boat's dimensions by computer.
``It saves about a third of the labor designing a boat by computer,'' said Atkinson, a First Colonial High School graduate. ``The calculations are already done and that means I already know how it'll sit in the water.''
Previously, Atkinson and a friend spent months meticulously gluing strips of wood together to make his own boat's jig. He worked on his 31-foot boat from 1986 to 1988 and just sold it this year.
Over the five years that he used the boat, he found that replacing rotted wood was a costly and time-consuming endeavor. He said for the average boat owner fiberglass ``is going to be the way to go because there's a lot less maintenance.''
Atkinson said he hopes to make two to three custom boats a year. In between building the boats, he'll do restorative work and customized accessory work.
Currently, he's a real estate agent at his father's business, Atkinson Realty. It's a 20-year career he doesn't plan to give up just yet.
Boats have been a big part of the Beach native's life since he was a small boy fishing in Back Bay. Atkinson, past chairman of Ducks Unlimited and the Virginia Beach Chapter of the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association (ACCA), said he got his knowledge of boats from being an avid fisherman.
``I know what a fisherman likes,'' he said. MEMO: Parks Atkinson can be reached by calling on his digital pager at
521-7404.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Parks Atkinson has employed a marine architect to help design the
boats he plans to build. The architect designs a boat's dimensions
by computer.
In his commercial space off Birdneck Road, Parks Atkinson has the
skeleton of a Carolina-style, 28-foot power fishing boat already in
the works. In another two months, he expects to sell it for
$79,000.
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
by CNB