The first Stanley Boat – a boat name well recognized in the market – was built in the early 1980s in Parry Sound and was given a hull design to take on the rough and unpredictable water of Georgian Bay.
Still manufactured in Parry Sound today, the Stanley Boat has gone on from that first boat – built to take on the waters of Georgian Bay – to one that now plies the waters of countries around the world.
Started by Simon Stanley in 1973. the company that fi rst manufactured those boats, Stanley Machine, has been In the hands of Bill Connor, of Connor Industries since 1987. The boats, however, still carry the Stanley name, and their creator still lives in Parry Sound, quietly puttering away on antique cars and other small projects that capture his interest.
Simon Stanley was born in 1948 and raised on a dairy farm outside Parry Sound in the area where the Deer Run Golf Course is now located. There, his father Keith, and mother Madeleine raised dairy cattle. Simon always helped on the farm, but the tinkerer in him was quick to make itself known.
“When he was small it started,” Madeleine Stanley, now 95, remembers fondly.
“You took it for granted,” she says of the small boy’s interest in how things worked, and how things could be fixed.
Simon worked side-by-side with his father, always examining the tools and machinery they were using, recalls his mother.
“When we were at the farm, in the winter Keith worked in the lumber camp and Simon and I farmed together. We had 21 head of dairy cattle and he and I milked them.
If anything was wrong, he’d say, ‘let’s try it this way’. If I couldn’t think of it, he did.”
When Simon was 8, interest in the inner workings of things took on increased energy.
An old tractor sat out back. Because it was not working, Simon thought this the perfect opportunity to fi nd out more.
“I went out to the tool shed and tore the old tractor apart,” Simon recalls. “I didn’t know Dad had wanted to restore it.”
But a year or two later, in 1959, Simon’s father started up a small road construction business —Keith Stanley Construction. In 1960 he sold the farm.
Simon’s interest in how things worked now had a new opportunity to grow, and by the time he was 13, he was driving equipment for his father.
When he was 15, he started tinkering with cars, an activity that he still pursues.
“I would fix them up and sell them until I finally ended up with a new ’68 Roadrunner,” he recalls. “It fascinated me how stuff was made, but also how you could make it better.”
While the Stanley Boat was built to conquer the character of Georgian Bay waters, it is slightly ironic that Simon didn’t even know Georgian Bay existed until after he had left home to do his apprenticeship as a tool and die maker, and then returned to Parry Sound when he was 18. At that time he was invited by a friend to go out water skiing.
But it was many years later that the real connect was made, when Georgian Bay met Simon Stanley’s ability to solve technical puzzles.
As a young man, he worked in the area for different companies, including Parry Sound Pallets, owned by the late Ed Marek. Mr. Marek encouraged Simon to go into business for himself.
“He started with nothing,” says his mother.
But, “through my dad’s construction business, I knew most of the major contractors and a lot of business people in the area,” says Simon.
Sitting comfortably in an easy chair in the front room of his house next door to one of two plants now operated by Connor Industries, Simon reflects.
“The business started in the lower level of my house,” he says. “This was the shop. At first I started with one employee. I always worked the shop and the office.”
His wife, Fran, a teacher, kept rein on the financial end of the business.
“So we started the business and as it went along, I was always designing how to fix something or redesign something or build something. I’d wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning with a better idea, to try something I couldn’t fi gure out during the day.”
As the business grew, more employees were added.
“If there was something they thought would improve the product, it was always taken into consideration,” he recalls. “There were lots of little things we designed. We designed a wood-notching machine for Four Seasons Logging Homes in the early ‘70s and they’re still running today.”
The company was also making custom machinery for Ontario Hydro and the woodworking industry.
“We designed a special trailer for the marine industry for lifting boats, and that lead us to boats,” Simon recalls.
The trailers lead to Wright’s Marine in Britt, which resulted in the design of the hull that would start the Stanley Boat line.
About the same time, the business was moved to its own quarters, the plant Connor Industries now uses next door to Simon’s residence.
“In ’81 we were building hydraulic marine trailers which were up to 40-feet-long. I approached Norda, a government agency,” he says, recalling that Gary Elsie was the representative.
“We approached Gary with our business plan because the trailer business was taking off, and he liked what he saw, and through their help we expanded into a new building.”
Doug Wright of Wright’s Marine in Britt asked Mr. Stanley to build him a reproduction of a steel boat he used to serve the outer islands. “He told me roughly what he wanted. Doug had some input what he thought the design should be to carry the lake waters.
Between the two of us we kind of came up with a hull design, and I did one the way I thought it should be to accommodate Georgian Bay. The special design of the hull is in the shape and design of the V and the way it disperses the water,” he explained.
After that first boat, more orders came in, but it was always basically the same hull design. Norda approached the company this time.
“They came back and said, ‘Do you need anymore money?’ because the business was doing so well,”
recalls Simon. “We expanded from that.”
But the company remained diversified.
“Through involvement with trailers, we got involved with dock systems through our contacts with marinas. We did structural steel building, custom design machinery, and custom design boats—basically anything to
do with metal.
“My business was totally word of mouth. Over the years people would always say, ‘Can this be repaired?’
“We were across Canada. We had trailers in Nova Scotia. We built specialized equipment for Hydro which was all over Ontario.”
While the company had not yet gone international, it was starting to have a market across Canada.
“It was nice to be able to have a business where you could keep some young people in Parry Sound,” commented Simon. Also, “we tried to buy locally as much as we could.”
He noted that two of the young men he had working for him (Larry and Calvin Smith) were the sons of the late Albert Smith who worked for Simon’s father in the construction business. Simon also gives credit to Brian Tait, an iron worker, who worked with him for 14 years, helping him in the business.
“I did that for 15 years.”
But health issues interfered.
“In 1986 I was having health problems,” Simon explains. “We have a family heart history, so I had all the
symptoms. My children were six and eight.” His doctor impressed upon Simon, that if he continued on, he would not live many more years. “You don’t run the business, the business runs you.
The business was at a point where it had to be expanded. It needed more time and more money.”
On October 21, 1987, Simon sold the company to Bill Connor. When he sold, he had four full-time and fi ve part-time employees.
Simon then turned his attention to restoring classic and antique vehicles as a hobby, and is a member of the Parry Sound Cruzers.
“I don’t regret selling because I had a chance to watch my kids grow up and be part of that. The company is still going and Bill has taken it to such an international status. It’s nice to be able to see Bill has been able to take the business to the next step, and also I feel honoured that he’s carried on the Stanley name.”
Simon’s children are Chris and Leanne. Chris is a Dalhousie business graduate and plays professional hockey in Italy, and Leanne is a high school teacher in Toronto.
Simon’s mother lives in her own house nearby, and spends her time nurturing her beautiful garden.
“He can do anything,” she says proudly, sitting in the front room of the house he built for her.
Simon’s health problems faded into the background with the more relaxed approach to life.
“I’ve got some ideas in my head that I would still like to market, but I’m just comfortable to do what I’m doing,” he says.