Serving New York and New Jersey
About Me
Why boats?
I grew up boating in Montana with my family. I enjoyed sunny days on the reservoir and learned to waterski. After finishing my degree at Gonzaga University, I soon found myself working on the 60' wooden Purse Seiner F/V Middleton out of Petersburg, Alaska fishing for salmon with a crew of five. Southeast Alaska is a beautiful place, but seeing it while working on a commercial salmon fishing boat is a different kind of tourism. It was the hardest job I've ever done while witnessing eagles scavenge the bodies errant salmon and giant whales crashing in the background as jelly fish fall into your face. Good times. While aboard the Middleton I learned of the Landing School of Boatbuilding and Design.
I had timed it so that after returning from Alaska I would soon depart for my two year volunteer tour in the Peace Corps. While in Senegal, West Africa, I "worked" as a business volunteer in a small village, participated in educational programs for entrepreneurs and made lifelong friends on both sides of the pond. I even took a ride in a dugout canoe with no bow - the other two dugout canoes were full of other volunteers and I was the odd man out. The "captain" and I were at the far back to keep what was left of the bow out of the water.
Once done with the Peace Corps, I returned to Alaska to fish not only for salmon but also longline for black cod and halibut. I was a glutton for punishment back then. The season came and went without incident and I next found myself applying to the Landing School in Kennebunkport, Maine. It was under the tutelage of Rick, Roger, Scott, Jamie and others where I would become classically trained in their Marine Systems Program, and build a 27' cold-molded runabout in their Cruising Boat Program.
After spending two years in Maine, I moved to New Jersey to work for Hinckley Yachts at their then-newly acquired yard in Brick, the former Winter Yacht Basin. I worked there for two years learning all I could until the economy soured and Hinckley laid off yard workers one by one. That was the genesis of Tulleson Boatworks. I took my skills and hit the road as a mobile marine technician. Boats had always been in my life and I wasn't ready to let them drift away. The business grew slowly, client by client, project by project, referral by referral until more than a decade has passed and I'm still messin' about with boats.