ANY BOAT YOU WANT

Not too long ago, you’d go to Maine for a traditional wooden boat. But nowadays the Pine Tree State can build you any boat you want. It can be big or small, production, semi-custom or custom, a rebuild, a renovation or a refit, cold-molded, steel, aluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber or wood. Between Portland and Mount Desert Island, you’ll practically break your neck over boatyards. Seemingly every other cove still has a boatshed, and away from the water there are yards tucked among the trees.

Besides production builders such as Sabre, Back Cove and Hinckley, and large yards like Hodgdons, Brooklin Boatyard, Rockport Marine, Front Street Shipyard and Lyman-Morse, there are dozens of smaller boatshops—many with just a handful of workers—that can make just about anything. Some of them build the iconic inboardpowered Maine lobsterboat, but others make purpose-built craft with outboards or even electric drives. The smaller yards can blend wood with composites or any other material. Craftsmanship remains paramount, and these builders are not afraid to take on a challenge.

SAMOSET BOATWORKS

Matt Sledge’s Samoset Boatworks sits in an industrial park off Route 27 in Boothbay, Maine. The shop is littered with all the tools, supplies and detritus of boatbuilding. There’s a table saw, a dust collector, a sander, a planer, a chopsaw, a drill press and an industrial-strength Powermatic bandsaw with a 12-½-foot blade. Jugs of epoxy and cans of Awlgrip cover the work benches, wood is stacked along a wall, and rolls of fiberglass cloth hang off a mobile cart. A couple of chainsaws rest on a wooden pallet by the open shed door, and decorate the stairs to the office. Green Coosa board is seemingly everywhere.