BOATWRIGHT JEREMY FISHER–SMITH WITH THE “KOHLENBERG,”AN 18–FOOT ROWING GIG HE BUILT AT HIS MARSHALL BOATWORKS FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S DOLPHIN CLUB
Born and raised on Mount Tamalpais, Jeremy got his first job in 1976 as a teenage apprentice to wooden boatbuilder Bill Grunwald on the Santa Cruz coast. He returned to West Marin in 1988 to settle with his future bride, Lorraine, and raise a family. In 2000, Jeremy moved his business to the original Marshall Boatworks, where he took over daily operation of the boatyard from the Vilicich family. Croatian emigrants Nickola and Nickolina Vilicich had purchased the property in 1925 when their cabin on the west shore of the the bay burned down. Their sons, John and Frank, founded the boatyard in 1945 after they returned from World War II. As the only remaining boatyard between Fort Bragg and San Francisco Bay, Fisher-Smith Boatworks provides maritime services while Jeremy continues his craft, designing, building and restoring classic wooden boats. Pictured on the left is the old net skiff that Clayton Lewis used to fish Tomales Bay.