By David Fleet
Editor
Brandon Twp.-David Ferrazza’s nautical quest had spanned seven decades, through a war in southeast Asia and a lifetime of work—next summer that dream will finally set sail.
In the 1940s, Ferrazza was a youth growing up in Detroit’s lower East side. He would often ride his bicycle to Belle Island on summer days the boat traffic on the Detroit River.
“I’d sit there on the docks, where Cobo Hall is today,” said Ferrazza, now 78 years old. “I’d look out on the Detroit River, and watch all the boats of all sizes sail by.”
Ferrazza recalls the beautiful wooden boat on the river.
“I’d look at the people on the boats who would often wave at me sitting on the banks,” he said. “There was this old guy sitting by me on the river fishing with a cane pole. He looked over at me and said, ‘what you looking at boy?’ I’m looking at the wooden boats—I’m going to have one someday,’ I told him.’ Well you better get the lumber and learn how to build one, because that’s the only way you’re going to get one,’ he told me.”
The old man’s comments to the youth stayed with Ferrazza.
“When I turned 75 years old I thought either I’m going to build a boat now or I’m never going to do it so I better get started,” he said.
Born in 1941 Ferrazza attended Northeastern High School and joined the Air Force in 1960.

He served in southeast Asia as a pilot until his discharge in 1966. He returned to Michigan 1967 and for the next 40 years worked as an engineer for General Motors and Chrysler. He retired in 2001.
Then in 2007, Ferrazza moved to the Traverse City area and joined the Maritime Heritage Alliance, a group who build and restore old boats.
“They had three big buildings full of wooden boats all built by members of the club,” he recalled. “I thought man, I’m in the right place.”
Ferrazza cast aside the possibility of building a boat from a prefabricated kit.
“I wanted to learn how to fashion the wood into a boat,” he said. “I wanted to build a boat the way they did in 16th and 17th century.”
The boat project started in 2015 inside a pole barn in the Traverse City area, then he moved to the township about two years ago. Ferrazza investigated the two man rowing skiffs—used to row out to a schooner in the bay transporting people and goods back and fourth to shore. So, he selected the 16 feet Amesbury Skiff—the design was created at the Lowell’s Boat Shop, Amesbury, Ma. When completed the wooden skiff will be 16 feet-6 inches long and 6 feet-6 inches wide. The wooden boat will tip that scale at a hefty 600 pounds.
“I built it from scratch,” he said. “I started buying wood, making cuts, learning how to shape the boards. It just started going. I just love this—learning how to cut with wood planes, use rivets and hand saws. Very little power tools were used.”
The boat named ‘Angelina,’ after his 10-year-old niece, includes about 1,100 copper rivets and is resting on a boat trailer in the garage of his township home. To see if it floats he plans to fill the boat with water and check it for leaks. Caulking cotton is the traditional filling material between the boards to assure water tightness.
“A lot of clear white pine, a lot of mahogany,” he said. “Marine plywood, red oak, sapele.”
It’s not easy to get the boards to bend either, he said.
“You need to thin the boards out, make them nice and skinny, then gently bend them,” he said.
“Boat building is extremely therapeutic,” he said. “I get out in my garage and start working with the wood and all the smells that come with it—it just absorbs you. I can’t think of anything else when I’m working.”
Ferrazza served with the 101st Airborne at the end of his service and has been a professional skydiver with more than 2,000 jumps.
“Building a boat is a lot like skydiving,” he said. “You can’t think of anything else when you’re jumping out of an airplane. It’s an intense sport.”
Ferrazza hopes to get the boat wet by August 2020 when he turns 78 years old.
“I followed the plans about halfway through,” he laughed. “I’m not a builder rather, I’m a skydiver who decided to built a boat.”
When completed Ferrazza will eventually launch the skiff in Traverse City West bay with members of the Maritime Heritage Alliance.
“People need to get off the coach, away from the televisions and do a project,” he said. “You can do things, find a project and build something.”