A real dreamboat

HUETTER - “I want to build a boat.”

With those words, Syd Young took his first steps toward navigating a lifetime of doing just that.

At age 14, he built his first boat — a 14-footer, under the tutelage of an uncle.

"Man, when it ended my hands were a bloody mess. I’d slip off the plane and hit the edge of plywood, you know, tear yourself up like that," he said. "But I got that boat built. It was probably the ugliest boat you ever saw. The paint job I put on it, it was terrible. I mean, I had yellow and red. I thought it was pretty cool.”

“So I just kind of grew up in a boat and I’ve been at it ever since.”

Fast-forward some 64 years. Syd Young is still building boats.

Over the course of his life, he’s built somewhere around 300. Restored even more. Designed about 60.

To this day, his interest is not in building a lot of boats. It is in building the best boats.

Lately, his passion is centered on his new venture, Dreamboats, Inc.

“We will operate in a smaller level that will take dang good care of every customer,” he said. “We have done that all my life and it's a joy to work that way.”

The 78-year-old Young defies his age. He is energetic, youthful and when he talks about boats, he is excited as a child taking the helm for the very first time.

Tuesday morning, he and employees Terry Conley and Colin Anderson were prepping a new double-hull for a 1937 Chris-Craft.

They pay attention to details.

“That’s going to be a smooth ride,” Young says.

For more than 40 years, Young has delivered classic mahogany boats across the Northwest. His passion for building boats led him to form Dreamboats, which is operating from his Huetter property on the Spokane River.

“We don’t want to be the biggest boatbuilder around, but the handful of boats we make each year will be the smoothest-riding and most eye-catching boats out there,” he said.

Young’s father was Stanley Young, who founded StanCraft Boat Company in Lakeside, Mont., in 1933. He listened and learned and loved, eventually taking over StanCraft and moving it to North Idaho.

In 2008, he sold the company to his daughter and son-in-law. But he continued to restore and build boats on his own and recently was ready to present Dreamboats' first two offerings to the public.

One is a classic 28-foot, utility-style design powered by a 375-horsepower engine that seats eight and features side-door entry. It’s good for cruising, wakesurfing and water skiing.

“It’s a very versatile, very comfortable boat,” he said.

The price tag will be around $750,000.

The second is “a head-turning hot rod of a boat, measuring 35 feet and featuring twin 383 Mercury engines.

“This is a brand-new boat with a lot of different concept designs,” Young said. “And it's things that make the boat fun to be in. It’s a boat you want to be on.”

Both have the latest technology and innovative design features, “all of which contribute to the best possible boating experience.”

Young says hull design is where Dreamboats stands out. He refers to it as a “bottom from heaven."

“This is a boat I’ve been working on my whole life to get that ride level and soft,” he said.

He says you could put a beverage on the dash and it wouldn’t spill.

“As far as quality of ride, I will put my boats up against anything else in the world,” he said. “I don't think you could do a lot more to make the boat ride better.”

Each Dreamboat watercraft is constructed of African mahogany and built by a small team of woodworkers and mechanics.

Young hopes to retire, eventually, from actually building the boats and focus on design and supervision. He wants to spend more time with his wife of more than 50 years, Juliette.

“That 80 years is going to catch up to me pretty quick,” he said, smiling.

Young also restores classic cars, owns a 1934 Cadillac and builds large remote-controlled airplanes.

“Even when a little kid I'd be down in the shop making science fair projects or whatever. I just always liked building stuff."

When it comes to design, he’s old-school.

“I don't use computers. I don't like what a computer does. I'd rather look at splines and ships’ curves and get down and eyeball it," he said.

If you ask Young what he is most proud of, what he's done that's different in the boating business, he'll tell you.

"It would be developing a ride that's truly fun to be in," he said.

Because to Syd Young, a boat that easily handles waves as if they were ripples is not just a dream.

“It’s a beautiful thing," he said.