Harold ‘Dynamite’ Payson died suddenly of an an aneurysm at his home in Maine on March 23rd. He was 82.
His message was simple. As expressed in his books and on his webpage,” Harold H. Payson … known to associates, friends, and his wife as Dynamite… thinks you can build a boat. In fact, if you can saw a penciled line, apply glue, drive nails, and bring a modest measure of patience to the task, you can build and launch a smart and able craft in as few as 40 work hours. You need not be driven by lack of tools, materials, skills, or time to abandon in frustration a project you conceived in a spirit of pleasurable anticipation.”
Payson was a boatbuilder in Maine who also offered plans for sale. He discovered that the plans were too complicated for many of his customers so he sat down with the legendary designer Phil Bolger to come up with boats that could be built by anyone – boats that were simple, cheap and easy; three words not often associated with boat building. Bolger, who was noted for his creative and often idiosyncratic designs, agreed to work with Payson under one condition. Payson would have to build each of the designs and work out the bugs in construction and on the water. Payson readily agreed. For more than 25 years, Payson’s “Instant Boats” have changed home boat building forever.
In addition to selling plans, Dynamite Payson wrote a series of entertaining books about boat building and model making. His Build the New Instant Boats, first released in 1984, was reissued in November of 2010, and is also available in Kindle format. Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson: 15 Instant Boats for Power, Sail, Oar, and Paddle was released in 2007.
Friends and relatives are invited to visit Thursday, March 31 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock St. in Rockland. A celebration of Dynamite’s life will be held at the funeral home Friday, April 1 at 11 a.m. A reception will follow at 104 Limerock.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Carpenter’s Boat Shop, 440 Old County Road, Pemaquid, ME 04558.
Before he became known as an advocate for amateur boatbuilders or acquired his nickname, Mr. Payson was an entertaining writer of cruising stories for one of the boating magazines, I think possibly “Cruising World”. His boat, a classic wooden yacht that was probably about his own age, “Sea Foam,” was as well known to readers as he was. I’ll miss his cruising tales although he probably hadn’t written one in 20 years.