Albemarle 53 Spencer Edition: Review and Builder Profile
Full Circle
When three legendary North Carolina families collaborate on a build, the result is a boat that blends the best of them all.
When Paul Spencer was a young dock rat, his hometown of Manteo, North Carolina was a remote, storm-raked Outer Banks outpost. Most of the families who lived, and made a living around this 300-plus-year old village were a hardy stock who relied on the bluefish, bass and shellfish of Roanoke and Croatan Sounds and the big pelagics of the moody open Atlantic to both pay the bills and keep their families fed. “It was a fun place to grow up,” Spencer said. “I just grew up falling in love with boats and fishing. My brother, who’s ten years older than me made it on some boats with some legendary captains. So that’s where my attention was.”
By the time he was a teenager, Spencer was an experienced young mate who had spent plenty of time offshore in waters generally known as “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.” By 20, he was captaining charter boats out of the Oregon Fishing Center. He would pursue this for another 20 years, becoming a husband and a father of five before realizing one day, that it was time for a new boat, but he didn’t have the money. “So I thought, well, maybe I’ll just build it myself,” he said.
It didn’t hurt that Spencer had come of age under the sway of his father-in-law, a pioneering Roanoke Island boatbuilder Sheldon “Papa Shel” Midgette. Watching Midgette’s practiced, calloused hands, Spencer came to realize he was just as smitten with eastern North Carolina’s boatbuilding scene as he was with fishing—maybe more so. “It was a mecca,” said Spencer. “And the fun thing about it was, there was a number of boatbuilders in the area and there were no big secrets.” Boatbuilders like Buddy Kennedy, Sonny Briggs or Billy Holden were friends, competitors and collaborators. “We got the education of hundreds of boats without building one,” he said.
In 1996, Spencer and his wife (of over 50 years) Shelly, launched Spencer Yachts. In the ensuing decades—with the help of all five of his kids—Spencer would join the ranks of his boatbuilding heroes. His custom sportfishing boats started out ranging from 53 to 61 feet, but as powerplants grew in output and owners grew in income, those lengths inched up. Today 125 builds in, Spencer’s sportfishers fall more in the 80- to 90-foot range. “Now, I think 80 is the new 60,” he chuckled.
Sitting to Spencer’s right in the cabin of a beautiful new, and significantly shorter, 53-foot sportfisher, Burch Perry and Keith Privott take up the story.
Perry grew up immersed in boats and fishing around Edenton, North Carolina. In 1978, his grandfather Scott Harrell had joined with Keith Privott’s father Mac to found a company called Albemarle boats. Their first model was a 24-footer with a single-engine sterndrive. “The concept was to build an offshore-capable boat for waters in North Carolina—that you could trailer,” said Perry.
Perry’s father Warner worked there for a time with his in-laws too. “But he had an opportunity—the family had some farmland that they were leasing out,” said Perry. “They said, you know, we could farm the family land. So, my summers early on in life were in the tobacco patch but I was also enamored with all the boats.”
When he was 16, the field-weary teen asked his Uncle Scott, who by then was Albemarle’s sole owner, for a summer job. “So, they threw me right in lamination to try to run me off,” he laughed. “And I was doing the 4 a.m. shift in the heat of the summer.”
Perry’s dad loved farming but didn’t encourage his son to follow in his footsteps. “He said, ‘You know, we can do everything right and mother nature can ruin it.’ You might pursue that boat thing with your uncle.” And so, he did.
Keith Privott grew up in a parallel—and ultimately competitive—world. In 1991, his father Mac left Albemarle to found Carolina Classic—becoming another revered builder of mid-20 to low-40-foot Eastern Carolina fishing boats. But the split between Mac Privott and Scott Harrell was not amicable. “My grandfather took Mac’s (Keith’s dad) leaving very hard, and was very angry with him,” said Perry. “I guess I would say that the older generation’s issues with one another probably kept us from being close. We were friendly, but not close friends.”
Young Keith grew up in the shop, doing manual labor, following his dad to boat shows and setting lures during fishing tournaments. He recalled he and his brother Wade drooling over Paul Spencer’s boats in particular. “You look at what those guys were doing, and it’s always just a dream of yours. One of these days, I’m gonna build a boat like that.”
Like Albemarle, the Privott’s offshoot company flourished. “For years, we were competitors on the docks,” said Keith. “We would sit stern to stern at Lauderdale. You know how people joke about it—old stories about two cousins who hated each other. And, you know, it’s almost comical to sit on the dock and listen to it.”
Burch Perry’s granddad sold Albemarle to Brunswick in 2005—which left Burch as Albemarle’s General Manager under the Brunswick corporation, leading into the 2008 recession. “Which was a lot of fun,” said Perry. “I had my second child, moved into a new house we built and ran into ‘08 all in about six months.”
At Carolina Classic too, “Everything kind of stopped,” added Privott. “Dad retired, my mother retired. But, you know, my brother and I are pretty hard-headed. We just have to stay and stick with it.”
In 2009, investor Scott McLaughlin bought the struggling Albemarle. In 2011, he bought the struggling Carolina Classic. In 2015, Murphy Alternative Investments fused both companies under an umbrella today called Edenton Boatworks. This literal family reunion thus created Albemarle Boats, The Carolina Classic. Today, Privott is VP of Sales and Customer Service while Perry is Senior VP and General Manager.
“There was no competition at all anymore,” Privott said. “Most of our competitors were out of business. It’s just been one of those things where we’re so happy to be building boats and be a viable company again. We just don’t take it for granted.”
Perry nodded: “We survived.”
After a few months of sales terror during the pandemic, the new Albemarle was, like many builders, busier than ever. A successful custom “Carolina” edition of their sleek 41 Express, a boat they call a “pocket battlewagon” was unveiled in 2020. “But we’ve been building the 41 now for over 20 years,” said Perry. “And a lot of customers are like, ‘We’ve got nowhere to go. We’ve got to jump brands for our next boat. So, we’ve been talking about a bigger boat for a long time and got serious about it, I guess three years ago now.”
Perry and Privott held a “bigger boat” meeting with their boat owners’ group. “We talked about, well, what do you guys like, what do you want this boat to look like?” recalled Perry. “Well, Paul Spencer sure does build a pretty boat. So, they kind of picked me and said, Burch, will you call Paul and ask if he would collaborate on design?”
Despite his bigger builds, Spencer, whose personal sportfisher Bullwinkle is a 57, still liked smaller boats. But, he said, “for me to stop and hand-build a 53-foot boat is kind of counterproductive. That’s not our market.”
But he knew too, that he had potential customers who weren’t yet ready for a 70. Thus, when Perry called Spencer and raised the idea of a collaboration, Spencer was all ears. “Literally in a maybe a 20-minute conversation, Paul kind of flipped the coin on me,” said Perry. “You know, he started out humble like he always is, and said, ‘Oh, I’m flattered you called me.’ But he quickly changed to, ‘Of course I’ll help you, but could I do more than just help you with design?’ And I said, what do you have in mind? He said, ‘I’d like to be your partner.’”
Perry and Privott were thrilled and almost immediately the three set to work. At first, the general idea was a 47- to 48-footer, but they wanted a three-stateroom, two-head boat and the bare minimum comfortable size for that was 50 feet. “And Paul’s pretty quick comment was, you can fit a whole lot more stuff on a 52 or 53,” said Perry. “We finally had to pull the plug because our lamination shop is only 56 feet wide.”
They also wanted her to be a production boat—but customizable. The hull mold, which would remain the same, would ultimately come from Sarasota’s Marine Concepts, but they wanted to be able to tweak the layout. And of course, said Spencer, “We really wanted a boat that looked killer. That’s the first stipulation for me in a boat, it’s got to look good. That’s where I think we’ve had some success. We also wanted her to perform—to be the best boat on the water, in short.”
Little hull tweaks revolved around advancing technology. Because she’d have a Seakeeper, you could add a couple of degrees more deadrise to make her more stable at high speeds. “Then I remember we had a conversation about—how long did we talk about spray rails?” asked Privott. “A week? We don’t want big spray rails. We want little spray rails, we’re pretty dry. He and I went back and forth … we can’t wait to add them on later. We need to figure this out now. So, we settled on small, short spray rails. You know small, so they don’t pound, but sharp so they shed water and work effectively.”
Other decisions revolved around a clean, uncluttered cockpit. “We had to put in some crown and fall and make sure it drained quickly,” said Privott. “And we wanted toe kicks, so you can go right up to the wall without stubbing your toes. And just little things. How wide does the mezzanine seat need to be to be comfortable and still be out of the way? How much cockpit do you need? Visibility from the bridge—can you see the transom as well as you can see the bow? If you’re fighting a fish or if you’re clearing rods—we had all those conversations.”
The interior design process was a mix of new school 3D CAD and old school feel. Privott recalled a meeting with Paul: “We just kind of laid some lines out on the floor and said, you know this, this is about what you need for a head. This is about what you need for a countertop salon area. This is typically what you’ll see for the twin bunk area. We just kind of laid it out with tape on the floor, on the sole of the boat inside of the hull.”
The team also wanted engine variety—from 1,000 to 1,200 horsepower dual Caterpillars but the first owner—and the subsequent next two—all wanted to see if something even more powerful could be shoehorned in. Thus, 1,600 horsepower MTUs that could push the 48,000-pound boat to 44 knots were installed.
Perry chuckled: “The guy who had number one had a little timing issue so he wanted to swap. So, the other guy had been sold by the MTUs. I gotta have these motors. And then this guy found out about it. He said, ‘Well, I’ll be damned if he’s gonna go faster than I am.’”
A million decisions coupled with the supply chain issues that plagued every builder, would stretch the debut of hull number one far longer than any of the team expected. But they adapted, building everything they could with what came in and putting off the steps that could wait. Still, it was stressful. Originally, they had hoped to unveil the boat at Lauderdale in 2022, but it simply had to be pushed to ’23. And on a blustery fall evening just before the opening of the show, I finally had the opportunity to step aboard. It was worth the wait.
This 53 Albemarle Spencer Edition has been christened Big Hunter. She’s a sleek beauty, worthy of bearing Paul Spencer’s name. Her owner will mostly use her for billfishing, and thus wanted a completely flat, teak-covered cockpit floor that will soon be centered by a Release Marine fighting chair. “If you want big hatch holds to access the engine or additional fish holds,” we can do that too,” Perry said showing me around. Big Hunter’s stomach-high stern fish hold had to pass what Perry calls “the five-gallon drum test” meaning that a five-gallon bucket had to fit in width-wise no problem.
The bright interior is trimmed in walnut—one of several available options. A huge L-shaped settee can be joined with a cushion to create a huge ottoman sleeping space to starboard. Its seats open completely, creating massive gear storage areas. A twin-stooled bar separates the salon from a galley slathered with beautiful granite countertops, a nifty, counter space saving hidden cooktop and beautiful double-latching cabinets with pull out shelves. The practicality is most impressive.
Up top, the flybridge is beautifully thought out. Twin Release Marine chairs are set to starboard before a gleaming display filled with 22-inch Garmin screens. If you went slightly smaller, triple screens can be fitted that will allow for a full-time Omni Sonar display.
Though she’s a “small” boat, she really doesn’t feel like it at all. Indeed, Spencer said that the cabin is actually larger than that on his 57. Her infused fiberglass construction is fairly sprightly too. She comes in at 48,000 pounds dry. “I’m just so proud of this boat,” said Spencer. “Keith’s engineering team has done a marvelous job.”
Perry recalls the day they first splashed hull number one. Spencer couldn’t be there in person, so he was there virtually—constantly. “The texts we got from him the day we floated her,” he chuckles. “’How’s she float? How’s she float?’ He was so nervous—but it just sat exactly like he wanted it to. That man nailed it. He nailed it.”
View the original article to see embedded media.
This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/boats/albemarle-53-spencer-edition-review-and-builder-profile
