Staff Writer
EAST BOOTHBAY — Thirty years ago, the wooden boatbuilding industry in Maine was sinking fast.
With the advent of fiberglass, centuries-old methods of turning trees into boats appeared headed for obsolescence in the face of a new technology that seemed to be everything wood was not: reproducible, low-maintenance and rot-free.
But Maine has a way of going against the grain. Even as fiberglass has claimed the largest share of the market by far, wooden construction has held on as a thriving specialty that some people see as the heart and soul of the boatbuilding industry. Few, if any, places in the United States are seeing wooden boats launched in the quantity seen on the coast of Maine.
"Out of several hot pockets of wooden boat construction in this country, Maine is probably the hottest," said the Landing School's Glen Shivel, who serves as a link between boatbuilders around the nation and the school in Kennebunk.
Two approaches to the craft of building wooden boats dominate in Maine.
Some people, mostly the builders of large yachts, construct boats primarily out of wood but use methods that bear little resemblance to traditional techniques. These builders view wood as a material with certain strengths and weaknesses, appropriate for many applications but rarely an entire boat. These builders are consciously experimental, always looking for new ways to stretch the boundaries of what can be done with wood.
"We've tried to take it to a different level and a different place," said Tim Hodgdon, president of Hodgdon Yachts in East Boothbay, where his family has been building wooden boats since 1816. "We're certainly not purists anymore."
Another segment of Maine's wooden boat industry consists of smaller shops where craftsmen create traditional wooden boats with methods that, in some cases, have been in use since the time of the ancient Egyptians.
Most of these builders say their aim is to create boats using time-honored techniques rather than attempt to break new ground.
"The old technology is worth keeping going in a real sense -- not just in a museum once a year," said Dick Pulsifer, who has made a career building the Pulsifer Hampton, a 22-foot open boat based on a traditional design, out of local varieties of wood in Brunswick. "It feels good. It works. It just fits."
An example of cutting-edge wooden boat construction was tied to the wharf at Hodgdon Yachts last week. The 98-foot ketch Windcrest, launched a year ago, had returned to the yard for some maintenance work that included retouching a band of trim along its blue hull with 22-carat gold leaf.
Like nearly all the boats built at the East Boothbay yard these days, there is little wood in the Windcrest that has not been sliced into thin strips and glued back together as a laminate. The 70-member crew at Hodgdon, up from 13 in the early '90s, built the hull by laying strips of wood over a form and fastening them in place with epoxy. Large vacuum bags placed over the hull create a tight bond during each gluing sequence.
By repeatedly laying down strips at different angles, a process known as cold molding, Hodgdon Yachts constructs a seamless skin of wood that has more stability than a traditionally planked hull. Several boatyards in Maine are among the handful of places worldwide that specialize in this form of construction. Finally, the hull is wrapped with a thin layer of fiberglass. The result is a wooden boat that requires no caulking or painting.
The yacht's interior is finished with ornate cherry cabinetry and custom-made hardware. This wood, too, is laminated to prevent it from swelling and binding with the frequent changes of humidity encountered on a boat. Hodgdon swung open a close-fitting cabinet door to demonstrate the close tolerances that are possible with this material.
"My father used to say, back in the old days, 'Put enough clearance on it till you're ashamed of it, and then...
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