Maine Boatbuilder's Show : Episode 6

As I was momentarily distracted, I'll continue with a wrap up of some of the sights and scenes of this year's show. Above is a good overview of one section of the show. Directly at the bottom of the shot and just out of sight is the Shaw & Tenney booth. Shaw & Tenney are longtime makers of fantastic paddles and oars in Orono, Maine. Oddly enough, they had a Whitehall pulling boat which you can just see. Nice work, just not what I expected from them.

Just above that is Clint Chase's booth. Clint had his Drake pulling boat on display. Drake is his own design based on a Norwegian style hull and won last year's Concours D'Elegance award at last year's WoodenBoat Show in Mystic. Clint is the former director of the Compass Project in Portland, Maine and a graduate of the Landing School. This summer, Clint will be teaching a Session at the WoodenBoat School on modern and traditional oar making. Be looking for great(er!) things from Clint in the future.

Boat size ranged from the very small - a salesman's sample canoe in a full size boat... (No, you're not looking at an Escher photograph.)


...to the very large - Phin Sprague's Schooner Lion's Whelp. It's a 72 foot long boat - one of the largest at the show, and it's for sale!


There was the old, and venerable - Lowell's Boat Shop - they are on the National Register of Historic Places. On top of being an active boat shop, they are a museum as well, being the source of many of the New England fishing dories that were a critical tool for the New England fishing fleets. Oh, and yes, that does say since 1793. They have been in continuous operation since that time!


There was the very shiny - lots of different product on display from Bristol Bronze. If you need bronze hardware, they probably make it.


Some bronze work in action...


Classic Boat Shop from Bernard, Maine brought along their Pisces 21 daysailor. It is designed by Chuck Paine based on the Herreshoff Fish Class. It's truly a beautiful boat.


CW Hood brought their sleek 32 foot daysailor to go along with Mischief. Personally, I think the daysailor was the more impressive of the two boats.

The Compass Project that I mentioned above was also there displaying boats and raffling off a boat to raise money for their program. It is a program which teaches youth job skills and life skills by building boats. We need more of this kind of stuff.


A pleasure, as always!