Buddy Purcell, co-owner of Huckins Yacht alongside his wife Cindy, passed away in early July after a good, long life. Both hardscrabble and cultured, shop-worn and wise, my buddy Buddy was one of the last remaining American custom yacht builders. And Huckins remains one the oldest old-school American yacht yards. This month we honor the memory of Buddy and, by extension, the fond memory of the American yachting industry as it once was.
This is not Buddy’s obituary. It’s not my place to write that. But I can give you the briefest sense of what Buddy meant to his boatyard crew and his clients. He was foremost a family man, both to his own kin and to his extended Huckins family ranging from the painters to the pecunious. Buddy was a father figure to a lot of people who worked at Huckins Yacht over the years. His wry sense of humor lit up rooms quietly. And his word was not merely a verbal estimate.
Power & Motoryacht ran a feature story about Buddy and Cindy Purcell in the May 1988 issue. I was 14 years old when I read that. I could only have guessed that, 30 years later, I’d be collaborating with the same duo I looked up to as a kid, designing a custom 45-foot Huckins named “WOMBAT.” She was the first of a handful of Huckins yachts, new and old, to which I have had the pleasure of applying my own design touch over the years.
In 2019, I wrote in this space about the value of traditional working yacht yards. Buddy and Cindy Purcell’s Jacksonville yard—birthplace of the PT boat—was what you really wanted to know about: “Boatbuilding facilities come in all shapes and sizes around the world. They range from mom-and-pop shops to ultra-modern facilities bearing more resemblance to a NASA subcontractor than a yacht yard.”
I complimented Buddy in a roundabout way when I wrote, “This venerable yard has been in business since Ponce de León needed his first pumpout. The shack housing the guest apartment in which I stayed was built before he needed his second. But don’t be fooled by the craggy, salt-baked exterior. Inside this sunburnt building is an ice-cold luxury enclave which would make Conrad Hilton proud. There’s a living room with a 70-inch TV, a quiet king-sized bedroom, a fridge full of beer and a freezer full of Dove bars. You won’t find comfort like that at a NASA subcontractor.”
Later that year, the annual Huckins Yacht rendezvous was held on Mackinac Island. Buddy made my 11-year-old son feel like “one of the guys” the whole time. I appreciated that a little more than I ever let on. Buddy’s kindness will not be forgotten.
Buddy and Cindy Purcell have been staples at the annual Ocean Reef Club Vintage Weekend for two decades. Buddy’s aforementioned humor and encyclopedic knowledge of American custom boats were yearly highlights. The yachts they’ve built have rightfully won many awards for “Best in Show” at the celebrated December soirée over the years, a nod to their significance.
Buddy’s passing should be mentioned in the context of the American yachting industry as a whole. In a case of situational irony, demand for mid-sized custom yachts from 40 to 80 feet has waned as a result of the yachting industry’s global growth. Now, a navy of production builders fill the demand with a dizzying array of off-the-shelf options. These production boats are largely built overseas and gladly snapped up by us Americans. Who among us in the market for a 40- to 80-footer today looks first to a custom builder? Not many.
There remain pockets of custom yacht building in the US; in Michigan and Maine, the Carolinas, Wisconsin, the Northeast, and the Pacific Northwest. And Huckins is under new ownership, in the capable hands of Andy Tyska. If you knew Buddy Purcell, you’ll cheer for Andy as he keeps the storied yacht yard from becoming another waterfront condo development. And you’ll cheer for a new generation at Huckins to do their best to keep on building custom American boats.
Somewhere Buddy will be cheering, too.
This article originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
