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| To the Boatyard Born | ||
| With passion and a legacy of skilled craftsmanship, Maine’s boatbuilders put a “Down East” accent on every yacht they construct. | ||
| BY HILARY NANGLE | ||
Every pocket along Maine’s ebbing and flowing coastline harbors boats. Sleek sailboats anchor next to grimy fishing trawlers, sturdy lobster boats moor cheek by jowl to natty power yachts. Old salts know not only which ones were built in Maine, but also exactly where along Maine’s 5,500 miles of mapmaker-challenging coastline they were built and by whom.
American boatbuilding was born in Maine, and it remains embedded here, a legacy passed down from generation to generation that’s as much a part of the state’s hard-to-define, must-experience-to-understand Down East mystique as are its fog-shrouded lighthouses, granite-knifed shores, and back-to-basics lobster shacks. Originally a sailing term referring to the prevailing winds, “Down East” has broadened to include not only the state’s craggy, spruce-lined and island-dotted shores but also its thrifty, honest, and hardworking character. To say that boatbuilding is part of Maine’s heritage is an understatement. The craft predates statehood, even nationhood. During the winter of 1607–1608, colonists at Popham, a short-lived sister colony of Jamestown located at the mouth of present-day Maine’s Kennebec River, constructed the first ocean-going vessel built in the new world, the pinnace Virginia of Sagadahoc. Nearly 400 years later, boatbuilding remains one of the traditional occupations driving Maine’s economy. From windjammers to lobster boats to luxury yachts, construction techniques and designs evolved relatively quickly in Maine because so many skilled workers were attacking similar problems and arriving at slightly different solutions. Today, more than 200 boatbuilding shops, ranging from one-man operations crafting one lobster boat at a time to diversified yards with multiple power and sailing yachts simultaneously under construction, salt Maine’s coast, and the state’s at the forefront of composite construction. That technology produces boats that are not only lighter than traditional wooden boats, but also stronger, while still permitting the graceful lines for which Maine boats are renowned. Six Maine boatyards—Brooklin Boat Yard, Hinckley, Hodgdon, Lyman Morse, Morris, and Rockport Marine— earn top accolades and renown far beyond the state’s borders, attracting yacht buyers from across North and South America and even Europe. Each has its niche, yet they share a reputation for quality and precision. And each approaches boatbuilding as
When Hodgdon purchased the company from his father, Sonny, in 1983, he began modernizing construction methods and techniques, moving from traditional plank-on-frame construction to cold-molded wood/epoxy composites. To great fanfare, Hodgdon launched the 124-foot Antonisa, complete with custom pipe organ, in 1999; the 154-foot, seven-inch super-yacht Scheherazade, a ketch that’s just eight inches shorter than a Boeing 757, in 2003; and the 98-foot Windcrest, in 2006. In January, Hodgdon launched an 82-foot, medium-range insertion craft for the Office of Naval Research and U.S. Special Operations Command. Much of what is learned on this project will filter down to recreational vessels, such as Hodgdon’s 62-foot café racer and its Hodgdon 105 blue-water cruising yacht, both also under construction. “It’s an interesting blend,” Hodgdon says of the yard’s mix of high tech and fine craftsmanship. “We have people who can do high-end system composite work building an intricate bridge with 20 computers coupled with guys who can take a chisel and carve a little seahorse by hand.” P.O. Box 505
Morris builds power yachts and performance, cruising sailing boats. “Not race boats and not just cruising boats,” Morris says, “because life’s too short to go slow in a big boat.” Maine-built boats are treasures that reflect the state’s values, Morris says. “You couldn’t do what we do here in boatbuilding anywhere else in the world. The Chinese try to copy and others mimic, but it’s always cubic zirconium, not the passion of Maine-made products; that’s real.” P.O. Box 395
Turner says Lyman Morse is the only company in the country that builds a full-scale mockup before it begins construction. “With any major changes, it takes 10 minutes to move a bulkhead made out of cardboard and plywood, a change that costs hundreds of thousands once in the boat,” he says. 84 Knox Street
“Part of our niche is that we design as well as build,” says White, who took over day-to-day operations from his father, Joel, an MIT-educated naval architect, in 1978. “That gives us a competitive advantage in the marketplace: the customer can come in and talk with a designer about ideas, look, performance, and essentially it’s the same person building the boat.” Brooklin Boat Yard’s custom boats are known for classic styling, with modern innovations that allow for better performance without all the maintenance issues inherent in traditional wooden construction. “We obviously have opinions of our own of what makes a good boat and what doesn’t make much as much sense. The good thing about custom boats is that we’re not trying to build boats with a great resale value,” he adds. “It really only has to suit the owner, so it becomes unique and individual.” Center Harbor Road Rockport Marine
Rockport doesn’t have a line of boats. Some customers come to the yard with only an idea, others with a complete design. “There’s no average size. The smallest we’ve built is 16 feet, the longest is 112,” Allen says, adding, “We’re a pretty small facility. We usually only have one or two boats under construction, depending on the size and complexity of the systems.” Allen’s employees are “really invested in the outcome of the project; they pour their hearts and souls into it. You get their thoughts, as well as their work.” It’s not uncommon for the craftsmen to make suggestions on how to improve a design or customize it for the owner. 1 Main Street
Bennett compares boatbuilding in Maine to watch making in Switzerland or auto manufacturing in Detroit. “It’s a culture that’s perpetuated father to son, father to daughter, so there are people who learn because they’ve always been around boats and heard all that language around the dinner table.” And, he adds, “in Maine, you’re typically buying a boat from the people who built it, rather than someone who represents it, and most are small builders, not large volume manufacturers.” Multiple generations of families work for Hinckley: “Fathers, daughters, sons—at one time we had three generations of the same family all working here at the same time. That type of continuity is rare.” It’s also an asset: “Some of our best ideas come from our owners working with our employees. It’s a synergy—‘We can do this,’ ‘Let’s try that’—that’s the intangible that’s so rewarding. It’s a different experience than putting quarters in a slot and having something come out of a vending machine.” 130 Shore Road
THE PROCESS
Expect to bare your soul in the process. “We need to know personal things about the owner—how he brushes his teeth, how he uses the bathroom—because it’s all set up for the owner and family,” Turner says. One benefit of working with a custom or semi-custom boatbuilder is personalizing the vessel with signature touches. Morris created a deck layout and boarding system for a cruising couple so that the wife, who had MS, could move around the boat with ease. Hodgdon’s Antonisa has a cherry bathtub and an elliptical interior with skylights; Scheherazade has 500 hand-carved Still, even with all the creature comforts, “there’s something elemental about being on the water,” Bennett says. “It has mental value, intrinsic value. It’s invigorating, restorative; why else would people spend what could be termed a lot of money for such short usage?”
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Hodgdon Yachts
Morris customizes its basic designs to the purchaser’s needs and desires, enabling buyers to create something that is 
“We’re on the custom side of semi-custom. We might reuse a hull design in a series, but the only thing that looks the same is the hull,” Turner says. “We don’t want to have a look; we want to be completely different out the door with something new.” Currently under construction are a 94-foot motoryacht, a 62-foot catamaran, and a 65-foot sportsfishing boat that will be a business showplace for the owner. 
Brooklin Boat Yard
The similarities between the two yards are numerous. Like Brooklin Boat Yard, Rockport Marine began as a storage-and-repair facility, but about 10 years ago, it ventured into boatbuilding. Like White, Allen is a second-generation owner. And like Brooklin Boat Yard, Rockport Marine is a custom builder, specializing in wood and wood-composite construction.
“Maine builds boats that look like boats instead of boats that started life as kitchen appliances,” says Phil Bennett, sales manager at Hinckley Yachts. “We tend to build button-down collar boats, traditional styles with graceful lines that reflect the environment they’re used in.”
Visit yards to find the right fit. Building a boat is like entering a new relationship. “You think it might work out, you hope it will, and most often it does,” Allen says. “It’s as much a trust issue as anything else. Owners need to trust that yards are working on their behalf, and yards need to be able to trust owners as well. If trust exists, a project will turn out well.” Rarely is a boat built without changes or modifications along the way, and most contracts are written to facilitate changes, so the process is clear from the beginning. 
