Biography

Earl was born in 1897 to Lewis Grandy and Flora Davidson. He married Lois Jones in 1929. ^[1] Earl passed away in 1982. ^[2]

"On August 25, 1967, fire razed the Grandy Boat Company at 2538 Westlake Avenue N, ending two generations of boat building. In 1903 Lewis Lee Grandy (1873-1952) opened a boatyard in Tacoma, then relocated to Vashon Island in 1910. In 1911 he built a 40-foot, raised-deck cruiser, Kingkole, designed by Otis Cutting (1874-1955), who eight years later would co-found Lake Union Dry Dock Company. Remarkably, the vessel, renamed Lawana, was still in use more than a century later.

In 1922 Lewis's son Earl (1897-1982) opened a floating repair shop off Westlake Avenue, joined shortly by his brother Bill (1898-1989). They soon purchased land at the site, and with partner Henry Bailey earned a reputation for efficiency and quality craftsmanship, often running two shifts to keep up with demand. Legions of union shipwrights served their apprenticeships with the Grandys.

The Grandys built in many sizes and for many purposes, including thousands of 12-foot lapstrake dinghies, fish boats, rum-running speedboats, various commercial vessels, and classic pleasure cruisers, some more than 50 feet in length. In 1934 the company debuted a 42-foot stock cruiser designed by Ed Monk Sr., who had been a shipwright at the Blanchard yard before being hired as a draftsman by Ted Geary. Monk became a prolific and popular designer, and before the decade was out he had moved his office into the Grandy yard.

Both Grandy brothers were still actively working in 1967 when the fire hit. N. J. Blanchard had been in his late 30s when his first Lake Union shop burned in 1922, but the Grandys were more than three decades older. While fire was the direct cause of company's demise, fiberglass played a role as well. The old ways were fast disappearing, and the Grandys made no attempt to reopen." ^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Washington, County Marriages, 1855-2008: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKNB-SPCR
2. ↑ United States Social Security Death Index: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V9P7-BZV
3. ↑ https://www.historylink.org/file/20366

• United States Census, 1910: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGJN-46G
• United States Census, 1940: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K93Q-6F3

Some of the boats

• Gracie: https://classicyacht.org/boats/gracie-1962
• Jonta: https://classicyacht.org/boats/jonta
• Selkie : https://classicyacht.org/boats/selkie

Other Seattle Area Boatbuilders and Designers

• John Anderson
• Norm Blanchard, Sr.
• Norm Blanchard, Jr.
• Leigh Coolidge
• Frank Curtis
• Walt Curtis
• Al Curtis
• Otis Cutting
• Victor Arthur Franck
• Ruth Russell Franck
• Victor Russell Franck
• Bill Garden
• Ted Geary
• Lewis Grandy
• Bill Grandy
• Tony Jensen
• Anchor Jensen
• Dewitt Jensen
• Harry Jones
• John McLean
• Frank Prothero
• Bob Prothero
• Robert Prothero, Jr.
• Sivert Sagstad
• George Stebbins