2016 Maine Boatbuilders Show

The 29th Maine Boatbuilders Show, New England’s largest boatbuilding event, drew record crowds March 15-17. On exhibit were boats ranging from one off wood rowing skiffs to a 36' Ellis motor yacht and items for sale that ranged from a can of marine enamel to a once important antique bronze boatbuilding tool from the 18th century that only one person in the building could identify.

Visitors drifted through multiple historic 19th-century industrial buildings checking out traditional wooden daysailers, antique marine hardware, electronics and about everything else associated with messing around in boats large and small. The Maine Boatbuilders Show is a huge mix of all kinds of boats, engines, equipment, marine supplies, tools, rope, crafts, arcania and live demonstrations. Taking it in means setting yourself adrift in a sea of marine curiosities, nibbling at this and that, until after closing time you find yourself beached in the parking lot as the afternoon sun brings you back to reality.

The MBBS has been held in the sprawling 19th-century brick waterfront complex that originally housed the the nation’s first railroad train manufacturing facility in 1847. The buildings alone are worth the trip.

Portland Yacht Services, the producer of the event, occupied the building before building their new facility at 100 West Commercial Street, just south of the Casco Bay Bridge.

Hamilton Marine shows why they call themselves “Maine's Marine Super Store.”

Richard Stanley built daysailer. Traditional cedar planked on oak frames and keel.
The oval cockpit with coaming is roomy. The deep keel a stable base for the gaff rigged sail.

Jeff Pearson’s collection of old carpentry tools, wood boatbuilding tools,
rare and antique marine hardware and nearly everything else related,
is a practical item museum where the exhibit is for sale.

Wood canoes, old bronze hardware, woodworking-boat building
hand tools and all kinds of rare marine stuff.

Chase and Leavitt had a few of the many life rafts, survival at sea equipment items
and inflatable boats it has been selling since 1854.

For a short history of the Portland Company buildings that house the Maine Boatbuilders Show, go to: www.fishermensvoice.com/201605PortlandCompanyBuildings.html