Custom Wooden Boat Building

A lifetime of memories are built into Great Harbor boats.

Once you decide you're ready for a wooden boat it's time to talk with us at Great Harbor Boatworks. Each of our boats is custom designed and built with painstaking care to ensure just the right vessel for you and your family to enjoy. By combining traditional boat building techniques with today’s technology and our own innovation, we build recreational boats that pass from generation to generation.

Planning and constructing a sound wooden boat takes a lot of experience, a keen eye and a commitment to quality. At Great Harbor, where boats have been built for nearly half a century, we have old-fashioned values and adhere to a standard of the highest quality craftsmanship. Our boats stand the test of time and will give you enjoyment for generations to come.

Being a smaller boatyard allows us to really know every boat and owner and give them the attention they deserve. In larger boatyards several people may be making decisions about each step, but at Great Harbor we know the specific needs of every boat and every owner. We don't have to ask someone else and we don't have to go through a cumbersome process to do the work right. When you hire us to build your wooden boat, you've chosen experts that have as much or more experience as anyone in the business, from design to systems. This is what helps us maintain such a great value for our customers.

We'd like to hear your ideas for a wooden boat, and welcome you to call us today at 207.244.3795.

---

Testimonial - Custom design and building at its best

Ed Roney

Designing and building Mbuoya, a 29' lobster boat based on the classic style, re-worked on a larger scale for recreational use.

“When Great Harbor builds a boat, it is like one of their children.”

After interviewing more than 40 boat builders, from Rhode Island to Maine, Ed Roney decided on Great Harbor Boatworks to design and build a pleasure boat for his family to enjoy.

“I chose Great Harbor because of the quality of their workmanship, their ability to scale a working lobster boat to a 29-foot personal recreation boat, and their reputation,” Roney said.

He also noted that Mbuoya's every detail is “cabinet maker's quality and standards.” Great Harbor carefully selected various types of wood for different sections of the vessel, always with a particular purpose in mind for each.

“I felt like this boat was strictly designed for me,” Roney said. “And it's even more than we expected – super safe, travels nicely at maximum hull speed, and drives through the sea like a sailboat.

The boat was built in about a year and three months, and Roney made about 10 visits to Southwest Harbor during construction. He remembers this time as “very hands-on” from preparing the plans with Great Harbor's staff, to actually laying the keel.

His decision to choose wood over fiberglass came down to two things – quality and weight. While looking at fiberglass lobster boats along the East Coast he realized that the classic wood versions were quieter and sturdier.

“There is less vibration with a wooden boat, and it's sound construction,” Roney said. “In my view, a wooden boat offers a superior ride.”

In describing the work of Great Harbor Boatworks, Roney mentioned detail, devotion to excellence, and satisfaction.

“The Stanleys are an ethical family with high standards,” he said. “Everyone I know that knows wooden boats, they all know Great Harbor.”