The Bosarge family has lived on Mobile Bay for at least 150 years. And they’ve been building boats for 75. David Bosarge, 67, who operates Bosarge Boats out of Coden, said his uncle, Floyd, started building boats in the 1950s. Floyd’s company was Bosarge Boatworks, and he exclusively built wooden boats, 14 to 60 feet long. The smaller boats were used for hunting and fishing in the Delta. These larger boats, constructed from sturdy wooden planks, were utilized in the commercial seafood industry offshore — shrimping or throwing crab pots or mullet nets.
“Years ago you would look around, there’d be people building boats in their backyards,” David said. “You don’t really see that anymore.”
Starting out in the shop as a teen, David worked for Floyd for over a decade. David left for a career at a chemical plant, where he worked for over 30 years, until he retired in 2022. During that time, David built a wooden boat for himself every few years, 16 to 20 feet long, upgrading his design with each new construction.
Once he retired, he was able to focus his energy on his own boat-building business. He launched Bosarge Boats at his home and built six boats, by himself, in the first year. “I’m retired, so I don’t want to get overloaded,” he said. “It’s kind of along the line of a hobby now.”
Based on what the customer wants, each boat design is different — height, length, width, depth, flat bottom (for skimming shallow water), V-bottom (for cutting through choppy waters) — but all of David’s designs are based on a blueprint passed down from his uncle. “I don’t actually have ’em written down or anything,” David said. They are all in his head.
Today, David builds his boats out of plywood, which is lighter and less expensive than wooden planks. People don’t build boats with wooden planks anymore, David said; the price of the wood is too high and the demand is nonexistent.
“It seems like its time has passed,” David said. “Let’s put it like that.”