Made with Love: Sarasota man honored for eight decades of craftsmanship

George Luzier has been making high-quality wooden boats for 80 years, and this summer, his work was awarded national recognition.

By Niki Kottmann
| 10:56 a.m. August 30, 2017

Almost every major milestone in George Luzier's life has to do with boating, from the academy he chose to attend after high school to how he met his wife. Photo by Niki Kottmann

Sarasota
Neighbors

George Luzier remembers a great deal for a 93-year-old.

While going through the worn pages of photo albums in his boat shop, he remembers the name of the pet raccoon he used to put in his bicycle basket as a child (Zip). He remembers how much it cost to rent a 2,500-foot barrack at the Sarasota Army Air Field when it was reopened for public use after World War II ($35 a month). But the one thing he didn’t care to remember is how many wooden boats he’s built in his 80-year career.

“I’ve got a list there but I’ve never bothered to count it,” he said. “It’s more than a hundred.”

WoodenBoat Magazine recognized George Luzier with a Lifetime Achievement Award in July for 80 years of work. Photo by Niki Kottmann

The local man who’s built too many boats to count was recently honored by WoodenBoat Magazine with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to the craft of wooden boatbuilding.

Travel is harder for Luzier these days, so his close friend and customer Pat Ball attended the award presentation at the 26th annual WoodenBoat Show in Mystic, Conn., on July 1 and accepted the award on his behalf.

Luzier, a Sarasota native, adopted a love of boats when he was 9. His dad left the family, and one way his mother coped was by boating.

Mazie Luzier and her three sons acquired a high speed boat. “High speed” to an extent, because the motor worked only until the mouth of Hudson Bayou, the closest body of water to their house on Pomelo Avenue. After that point, the boys had to row it.

Zip, the Luzier boys' pet raccoon, appears to have enjoyed boating as much as his owners. Photo by Niki Kottmann

Luzier built his first boat when he was 13. He was passing the time on the bayou with his Uncle Bob, who was a yacht captain.

“I guess he took pity on me,” Luzier said. “We got along pretty good.”

Together, the pair built Luzier a 13-foot catboat. He sailed it until it was “falling to pieces.”

As a teenager at Sarasota High School, he spent his mornings in class and his afternoons working for West Coast Lumber on Central Avenue. He earned $18 a week, and says he “had it made.”

It was the last job he had that didn’t involve boats.

After he graduated from SHS in 1942, Luzier enrolled at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., under an accelerated war-time program. There, he earned his third mate’s license. After graduating in 1944, he began working on merchant vessels transporting goods such as fuel in Europe and the Caribbean.

One of the old boats sitting in George Luzier’s shop was named after the favorite phrase of his childhood friend Bill Hebb, who used to shout “Hello darlin!” to get the attention of girls when they were growing up.

His adventures on international waters aren’t his fondest sailing memories, though. It’s reminiscing about the boats he built when he was home between contracts that brightens Luzier’s face.

“Well, that’s just my life — the boats,” he said.“We built everything from scratch, which makes it interesting — and a challenge.”

When he ended his last Merchant Marine contract in 1950, Luzier came home to build a house for his wife, Carolyn — whom he met on a fishing boat on the old Yacht Club Channel during a fish fry — and take on boatbuilding full time. He opened his first shop in an old military barrack on the Sarasota Army Air Field, but outgrew it as his customer base expanded. He then moved to the rec hall of the air field before 1966, when he bought and built a shop on the property he owns now at 2135 Princeton St.

It took George Luzier and his great grandson a couple months to build this catboat, which is what his grandson learned to sail in. Photo by Niki Kottmann

George Luzier Boatbuilders Inc. has had several part-time employees including Luzier’s brothers, Homer and Charlie, and a series of gifted craftsmen friends of Luzier’s. But the sole full-time employee has always been Luzier.

He builds the boats one at a time and nearly all of them are his own designs.

His customers — many of whom have become his friends — appreciate his dedication.

George Luzier remembers the original buyer of all of his boats, so he recalls that this one, Lotus, was owned by architect Tim Seibert. Photo by Niki Kottmann

Luzier’s friend and three-time customer Ricki Lindsay wrote for the marine trade industry for several years, and she published an article about him in WoodenBoat Magazine in 1985. She said Luzier’s boats are unique for their combination of beauty and intelligent design.

“His boats are works of art,” Lindsay said. “Because he treats every boat as a special project, it’s like a baby, and he puts a lot of love and careful thought into the design. And he wants you to be happy.”

Luzier doesn’t speak as highly of himself. Boatbuilding is just what he does.

“I don’t know why they decided to do it,” he said of his award. “I guess I’ve been at it a long time.”