Lewiston man’s boats good enough for 007

LEWISTON – North-central Idaho jet boats aren’t as famous as James Bond’s trademark shaken vodka martinis or sleek Aston Martin sports cars, but the rugged river craft are becoming something of a mainstay in films about Ian Fleming’s British superspy.

Doug Riddle, owner of Riddle Marine and River Supply in Lewiston, said he built four stunt boats and two crew boats for the new 007 movie “Quantum of Solace,” starring Daniel Craig. This is the second time Riddle has built Bond boats, following 1999’s “The World is Not Enough,” with Pierce Brosnan, which featured one of his company’s one-seat sprinters.

Directors of the 22nd Bond film wanted a jet boat because they can take corners, slide and do other spectacular maneuvers difficult for boats with propellers. During 33 days in Panama earlier this year where Riddle helped with filming, his custom craft were clad in wood, then beaten with baseball bats, sledgehammers and even a forklift to give them the battered patina common in boats in the Central American country.

“The special-effects guys were worn out from beating on them,” Riddle told the Lewiston Tribune.

Riddle said the boats, outfitted with V-8 engines, are much like those seen running rapids on the Snake and Clearwater rivers near Lewiston. Instead of using ramps and other devices to make boats do tricks, the boats were crashed and smashed in real maneuvers.

“We sent them off brand new, painted and polished,” Riddle said. “When I got there they just looked like old pieces of” junk.

After each session of shooting, Riddle spent at least 15 hours per day to get the boats back into working shape by the next morning. Riddle also was told to build a hidden driver compartment in the boats so someone besides the actors could drive, leading to local reports of driverless boats zipping across the Panama Canal, he said.

He said he still gets e-mails from around the world asking about the boat he made for “The World is Not Enough.”