MAINE Heritage Revealed Inspired by Maine

&BOATS,HOMES HARBORS

Boothbay RegionBoatbuilding Mecca

Birchbark CanoeHeritage Revealed

Two ArtistsInspired by Maine

Stories about MaineLakes and Rivers

10+

MAINE

ON RIVER ROAD in Boothbay,David Stimson and his sons,Abraham and Nathaniel, are

building a 43-foot-long shallow-draftcenterboard wooden schooner fittedwith a steel backbone.

“Excuse the mess,” Stimson said as Ientered his barn-like shop. The cav-ernous building looks industrious ratherthan messy—the dirt floor covered withsawdust and stacks of live-edge oak andwhite pine in back.

For 40 years, Stimson has specializedin the restoration and repair of classicboats, as well as the design and con-struction of small wooden craft—skiffs,rowing boats, catboats, a war canoe, a

motorized dory, schooners, and somenifty, lug-rigged 15-foot daysailers thathe built for Pine Island Camp and callsBezumarangs, inspired by Bezuma, oneof the summer camp’s “sacred animals.”He also builds and repairs violins.

“You’d be surprised how many boat-builders get into violin-making, espe-cially as they get older, when planks arenot as light as they used to be,” saidStimson, who keeps warm in a woolearflap hat and paint-splashed vest, andhas a nice smile and quiet demeanor.

Tools collected over many yearsinclude a set of planes based on a centu-ry-old design. Strings of tobacco hang todry from the rafters—Stimson grows his

own for pipe-smoking. The feel of thisshop is semi-traditionalist; not exactlyback-to-the-land, but tucked into thewoods where, harking back to days ofyore, Stimson harvests and mills his ownlumber and builds along classic lines.

It seems fitting to find this quietbusiness off a rural peninsula road thateventually winds its way to the ocean.Stimson’s operation evokes traditionsrooted in the past, while also lookingtoward the future. The same can be saidof other boatbuilders in the Boothbayregion, where the variety and concen-tration of activity is astonishing forsuch a small, fairly remote collection ofvillages.

26 MAINE BOATS, HOMES & HARBORS | May / June 2016 | Issue 140

Boatbuilding

Boothbay boatbuilder David Stimson holds a model of his steel-backboned wooden schooner. The actual boat is shown under construction behind him.

On this peninsula, flanked by theDamariscotta and Sheepscot rivers, boat-building’s roots go back to a time of largefishing fleets and busy coastal trade.Today, the industry has expanded toinclude construction of pleasure boats.In all, the many boatbuilding operationsin the region, both large and small, com-bine to employ scores of people, andattract a clientele that ranges from localto global.

Builders run the gamut from one- ortwo-person shops such as Matt Sledge’sSamoset Boat Works and Stimson’s shop,to semi-industrial plants such as thoseencountered closer to the water below anarrow network of lanes in East Booth-bay. There, Hodgdon Yachts goes back200 years—the sixth generation of theHodgdon family now works at the yard.On the day I visited last winter, special-ists in carbon fiber, Kevlar, and Nomexhoneycomb core were testing, fairing,and fitting various elements for anadvanced-composite yacht under con-struction.

Next door at Washburn & Doughty,the buzz of TIG torches and plasma cut-ters reverberates through a 43,000-square-foot factory, and sparks fly aswelders on scissor-lifts join togetherhuge plates of steel in the making ofhundred-foot tugboats.

A farther jaunt down a steep drive-way that ends in the appropriatelynamed Lukes Gulch leads to Paul E.Luke, Inc., a third-generation company.Here, in a jumble of buildings that hintsat nearly 80 years of history, a vintageHinckley 49 sailboat is in for layout andsystems updates, while a roster of otherboats waits its turn for routine wintermaintenance.

Return to the west and find theBoothbay Harbor Shipyard, home forthe next three years of the Ernestina-Morrissey, a 156-foot-long fishing

Mecca The Boothbay region hums with maritime activitySTORY & PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAURIE SCHREIBER

At Washburn & Doughty in East Boothbay,sparks fly as a welder joins together steelplates in the making of a 100-foot tugboat.

Reprinted with permission of MAINE BOATS, HOMES & HARBORS • DIGITAL edition @ www.maineboats.com 27

schooner built in 1894 in Essex, Massa-chusetts. Later employed as an Arcticexpedition boat and then as a CapeVerde packet, the Ernestina, which is oneof the nation’s most historically signifi-cant ships, is undergoing a $6 million,

multi-year restoration. From traditional to modern, these

new builds and restorations are just afew of the boatbuilding projects in theBoothbay region.

By the waterfront, Boothbay Harbor

is a popular tourist destination. Aspaghetti-network of lanes and vintagehomes speaks of history, while thedowntown is lined with trendy restau-rants and shops. Southport sits on thewest side of the harbor. To the east andseparated by a promontory are LinekinBay and the town of East Boothbay.These small towns have a quieter, resi-dential feel. North of Boothbay Harboris the separate municipality of Boothbay.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, fish-ing and shipbuilding were two of thearea’s lead industries, eventually joinedby tourism and industrial enterprisessuch as seafood canning, according toBarbara Rumsey, a local historian withthe Boothbay Region Historical Society.Boatbuilders came and went. At theheart of the Boothbay Harbor shoreline,mid-19th-century Townsend MarineRailway became the Atlantic CoastCompany, then Sample’s Shipyard.Today it is the Boothbay Harbor Ship-yard. In East Boothbay, Adams Shipyardbecame Goudy & Stevens, then Hodg-don Yachts. Washburn & Doughty,which specializes in building tugboats,is at a site formerly occupied, at differ-


From left, Frank and Nora Luke, second-generation owners of the Paul E. Luke shop in East Boothbay,and their son, Andrew, who is taking the yard into the future with help from Cosmo, the boatyard dog.


ent times, by the Rice Brothers andEdward Gamage. Two other Gamagesstarted an eponymous boatyard that’sstill thriving across the river from EastBoothbay in South Bristol.

Jimmy Jones knows about changes.His grandfather started a shop in EastBoothbay. His father and uncle tookover, followed by Jones, who closeddown and went to work at Sample’s. Notlong ago, Mike Mayne, owner at the timeof Edgecomb Boat Works, a restorationshop a few miles inland, bought theJones property. He now operates underthe name Little Island Boat Yard LLC,resurrecting the yard to continue itslegacy in wooden boat work and serv-ice work for local lobstermen.

Jones himself now works at Hodg-don; when I visited he was chiseling arabbet in the forward section of a 1955Abeking & Rasmussen in for a majorrefit. I met him while touring the com-pany with fifth- and sixth-generationowners Tim Hodgdon and his daughter,Audrey.

“I was tired of running a business,”Jones said of his decision to sell. “I wasable to walk away, so I did.”

While Jones worked on a tradition-al plank-on-frame restoration, others atHodgdon were working with the latestcomposite materials. The yard producessuperyachts, from a 124-foot sloopequipped with a custom pipe organ andfunctioning fireplace to the sleek hun-dred-foot super-maxi Comanche, builtfrom carbon fiber pre-impregnated withresin, then “baked” in the biggest marineoven in the United States. The Hodgdoncrew built the “oven” inside a huge shedonsite. Tim Hodgdon introduced me tocomposite technician Sarah Boston, whotapped with a bulbed rod on a carbonfiber part, listening for bonding imper-fections. Elsewhere, Chip Haggett, a join-er who “grew up in the shavings,” wasinspecting a teak tabletop he crafted fora 65-foot modern classic under con-struction at the shipyard.

“These people are highly skilled,”said Tim Hodgdon, beaming. “We havethe traditional skill sets—joinery andwooden boatbuilding—that translatereally well into sophisticated advancedcomposite construction.”

Next door, Washburn & Doughty hasa whole different scene going on. Matt

Maddox, vice president of finance andson-in-law of co-founder BruceDoughty, equipped both of us with hard-hats and took me onto the floor. A near-ly hundred-foot tug, to be outfitted withtwo 3,000-horsepower engines, loomedoverhead. A big plate of steel was beingcut on a computer-controlled plasmaburn table; tractors and come-alongshauled the plates into place. The inces-sant noise of heavy machinery forced usto shout to be heard. Maddox noted thatthe company works hard to providesteady work throughout the year, avoid-ing the boom-and-bust cycle that plaguesother sectors of the industry.

“A lot of our people have been ship-building their whole lives, and they takea lot of pride in putting out a great boat,”he said. “It’s nice being part of a boat-building heritage, especially in a smallcommunity.”

Nearly 80 years of heritage are aliveand well at the Luke family’s shop, whichno longer builds boats but still offersstorage, service, repairs, and refits. Onfirst glance, it’s hard to tell that thishodgepodge of buildings is a boatyard,especially because there’s no sign. Then

I noticed a tubby pooch leashed near adoor that seemed to speak “office.”Inside, second-generation owners Frankand Nora Luke, and their son Andrew,were catching up on paperwork. Frankrecalled the old days.

“They built a lot of boats on a hand-shake,” he said. “You can’t do that now. Thefellows were just back from World War II,and there wasn’t anything they couldn’t door wouldn’t try, and it was fun.”

Frank father’s Paul worked for theRice Brothers, Gamage, and Frank Sam-

ple at different times in his career. Pauland his wife Verna started the Luke yardin 1939. It was known for wood and alu-minum construction, and developed awell-equipped machine and metal shop,producing everything from small-boatcleats to grinders for America’s Cupboats, plus galley stoves, and automaticfeathering propellers. In the 1980s, theLukes fabricated the cherry for ClaesOldenburg’s oversized sculpture “Spoon-bridge and Cherry,” at the MinneapolisSculpture Garden.

Oldenburg “knew he wanted to makethis enormous sculpture, and he knewit would be aluminum,” Andrew said.“He asked himself, ‘Who knows how towork aluminum?’ Boatbuilders do.”

Andrew guided me through a warrenof walkways, doors, and ells, past half acentury’s worth of machinery and scrapmaterials blanketed with dust.

“My grandfather never threw any-thing away, because he was of that gener-ation where you save everything,” he said.

Nowadays, the Lukes have upgrad-ed their storage and service yard. Frankand Nora are stepping back, but theyremain invaluable.

“My mother is good with names, myfather is good with boats. Between thetwo of them, it’s perfection,” saidAndrew. He then summoned an obser-vation true of the entire community:“That sense of history at their fingertipsis profound.” ✮

Laurie Schreiber has written for newspapers

and magazines on the coast of Maine for more

than 20 years. Her new book, Boatbuilding on

Mount Desert Island, was published in April

2016 by Arcadia Publishing.


The Washburn & Doughty plant, viewed from Ocean Point Marina, overlooks the Damariscotta River.


Audrey and Tim HodgdonThe 1921 launch of theschooner Bowdoin wascause for a celebration.

The Hodgdon family has been buildingboats since 1816 when Caleb Hodgdonlaunched a 42-foot pinky schooner inEast Boothbay—making the family thenation’s oldest in the boat business. TimHodgdon, the company’s fifth-genera-tion owner, and his daughter Audrey areplanning festivities to celebrate the yard’sbicentennial this summer.

“It’s an important legacy and I’m

proud of it,” said Tim Hodgdon, whostarted working at the yard during schoolvacations in 1971. He officially joined thebusiness in 1979, when constructioninvolved traditional wooden plank-on-frame and the workforce was four or fivepeople. Audrey joined the company lastyear. “In this business, you need toembrace technology. We’ve done that,”Tim said.

In the early years, the Hodgdons builtfishing boats and schooners, such as theWilliam Hand Jr.-designed Bowdoin,

(shown here on launching day in 1921).The business has grown and becomemore sophisticated, using the latestmaterials and technologies and expand-ing to serve clients all over the world. Arecent project was the high-tech, high-speed ocean racer Comanche. The com-pany’s divisions include a sales office inMonaco. —LS

For more information on the birthdaycelebrations, contact Audrey at 207-633-4194 or [email protected].

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