Bill Boutet started working
at Rybovich as a cabinetmaker in 1959. He retired in February at the age
of 80. Jimmy Becker, a former painting foreman and current behind-the-scenes
advisor, has been at Rybovich for nearly 40 years. And then there’s
Gary Hilliard, who started working on the floor at Rybovich nearly 30 years
ago. Today he’s head designer. This kind of long-term dedication to
the craft of custom boatbuilding, combined with a trademark look and mind-boggling
attention to detail, make it easy to fathom why Rybovich has been an icon
among sportfishing enthusiasts for more than 50 years.
When Tommy, John, and Emil Rybovich started building sportfishermen in West
Palm Beach, Florida, in 1946, the hulls were carvel-planked mahogany and
the frames were mechanically fastened. Carvel hulls demand a high level
of skill to make them strong and seaworthy, and at Rybovich the emphasis
was always on strength.
“Nobody was concerned with weight back then,” says Hilliard, adding
that solid construction was and still is the foundation of Rybovich.
However, modern techniques that would enhance the boats’ lightweight
nature were not far behind. In the 1960s cold-molded construction became
the standard building practice at the yard.
From 1970 to 1985, Bill Jackman, a noted third-generation Massachusetts
boatbuilder, ran the Rybovich yard and pretty much maintained the status
quo, with one exception. In 1975 Robert C. Fisher purchased Rybovich and
tried to develop a second line of production boats, the Rybo Runners. When
it proved unsuccessful, he sold the yard to Harvey Wilson in 1986 who put
Hilliard in charge of design and building. Hilliard felt it was time to
modernize the classic Rybovich while retaining certain characteristics like
the boat’s broken sheerline. “It was quite a task,” says
Hilliard. But when you have people like Boutet and Becker working on boats
they know as well as they know themselves, anything is possible.
“Harvey was kind of the opinion, ‘you know what to do, so do it,’”
recalls Hilliard. “That’s when we took a look at how the [Ryboviches]
were constructed.” Today the pedigree hull is constructed of triple-plank,
diagonally aligned mahogany, and the company has moved from framed-fastened
plank to epoxy-impregnated, which not only protects against water intrusion
(no more fittings to come loose) but also reduces weight. According to Hilliard,
a 60-foot Rybovich comes in around 51,000 pounds, while a production 55-footer
tips the scales at 70,000 pounds. The result was better performance. In
the 1970s, a 25-knot Rybovich was common. Today, Hilliard says, the average
60-foot Rybovich hits about 43 knots.
Hilliard recalls that everything came under the microscope. “At that
point we were using the hull design from the 1970s, and we needed to take
a hard look at [everything] below the waterline,” he adds. Donald Blount,
a respected designer and friend of Hilliard, was brought in to “clean
up” the Rybovich running bottom, including running gear, struts, through-hull
fittings, strainers, scoops, and transducers, with an eye toward reducing
drag. “We turned to single-leg struts that are flush-mounted, and there
are no through-hulls in the bottom except the flush-mounted sea chest,”
Hilliard says. To improve handling, Rybovich also replaced the traditional
spade rudders with wedges.
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