Welcome to MotorCity Boat Werks!
Every few weeks I post a boat building or boat repair video on YouTube to document my progress on old sailboat restorations, composite and fiberglass boat building, or my pocket trawler restoration. I make boat building and boat restoration content for the DIY boat builder.
I show the tips and tricks, the ups and downs, the decision-making and design that goes into the passion of amateur boat building. This is the real story of amateur boat building and amateur boat restoration.
I guarantee if you watch my channel, you will see things you have never seen on YouTube before. Don’t take my word for it, watch a few episodes, and see for yourself.
Joe Tokarz is the creator and operator of MotorCity Boat Werks, an amateur boat-building and boat restoration studio. He retired from public service after serving five years as a U.S. Marine Corps officer and 25 years as a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. In retirement he built MotorCity Boat Werks as a studio to showcase more than 30 years of amateur boat restoration and boat building.
He is not a professional boatbuilder. He has no sponsors. MotorCity Boat Werks documents amateur boat restoration from the perspective of someone doing the work himself. Over the years, Joe has restored more than a dozen boats, including sailboats and powerboats, rebuilt fiberglass and composite structures, and modified boat interiors and systems. One boat even sailed around the world. He is a published author. His current Albin 27 pocket trawler is his 14th restoration and his largest and most complex project to date.
The goal of MotorCity Boat Werks is simple: to give something back, to document what he’s learned, what works– what doesn’t, and show what’s possible for anyone wanting to restore an old boat.