Kevin Jeffrey and
NorseBoat
A Successful Canadian Boat Builder and Exporter
BY GLEN CAIRNS
It has been four years since Kevin Jeffrey
of Belfast, PEI put his 17. 5 ft. NorseBoat
camp cruiser up for sale. No stranger to
small business and marketing, Kevin has
had a varied career, creating solar homes
with traditional exteriors, founding an
organic association in Atlantic Canada
and serving as its first Executive Director.
Over the last four years, Kevin has had to
adjust to the realities of marketing his
product. Boating Industry Canada was
interested in just how he has faced these
challenges – so we sat down with him
recently to find out.
BIC: What prompted you to get into the
NorseBoat project?
KJ: I had a background as a sailor with
extensive cruising experience and I
wanted a portable camp cruiser instead
of a larger cruising boat. I also wanted to
be able to work on a new challenge with
like-minded people.
BIC: Why “NorseBoat”? What was the
thinking behind the name?
KJ: I wanted a name relating to small
open boats in which you could do
adventurous things. The heritage behind
this craft is both the open sea boats of
the Norse sailors and the seaworthy, par-
tially decked beach skiffs used by fisher-
men in the 1800s along the New Jersey
shore.”
BIC: Having come up with the concept,
why did you go to Chuck Paine? I know
he’s a famous designer, but he must be
expensive and he hasn’t done small jobs
like this. Did you have to talk him into
the project?
KJ: He was readily agreeable to the pro-
ject. His origins were in smaller, classic
boats such as his 26 ft. Francis (a dou-
ble-ended sloop designed in the 1970s).
He was pricey, but using him as a
designer allowed us to have the confi-
dence to go directly from his drawings to
the moulds. Initial sea trials proved his
worth in terms of performance and aesthetic appeal on the water.
BIC: You had the tooling and the first six
boats built in Maine after which you
moved the production to PEI. Was this
move a cost issue?
KJ: No, I found a boat shop that built
larger boats designed by Chuck Paine. In
fact the shop was only 20 minutes from
Chuck’s office, so he was able to keep an
eye on the progress as we built the plugs
and moulds.
BIC: This month you will be moving into
your new facility in Lunenburg. What
attracted you to this location?
KJ: Lunenburg is the perfect place to
build our boats. It is a welcoming,
marine-oriented community with a great
appreciation of classic boats, it has good
access to a protected harbour where we
can show and demonstrate the boats,
