“First Person” shares the stories of people who make a life here, in their words. Conversations are edited for clarity and length.
Finestkind Boatyard in South Harpswell offers not only winter storage and year-round service, but also welcomes people who want to do their own maintenance. Mark Hubbard founded the yard in 1980 and has been running it ever since.
Finestkind Boatyard began as a place where my family could work on the three boats we use for our Finestkind Scenic Cruises, which my family has run since 1956. Then we started taking in other people’s boats here in Basin Cove and it grew from there.
We offer full service but we’ve also always been a do-it-yourself boatyard. Obviously, it’s more profitable if the yard uses their own employees and does all the work. But it makes it tough on the guy who wants to take care of his own boat.
To maintain a boat — winterizing it, covering it, decommissioning it for the winter, recommissioning it in the spring, taking care of your mooring and your dinghy — it adds up to about 10% of the value of the boat every year. If you can do some of the repair and maintenance work yourself, you’re going to save a lot of money.
In May, June and part of July, there are a lot of people out here working together. It’s fun that way. They can ask their neighbor, “How would you do this?” I also end up spending a lot of time with people just answering questions. With bigger jobs, they’ll ask, “Is this something you can do for me?” I say, “Yeah, I can — or if you want to pay for an hour or so of my time, I can show you how to do it.”
I’ve loved to work on boats since I was a kid. When my father built the second Finestkind boat in 1968, he handed me a 5-gallon bucket and said, “Go down inside the hold and paint everything.” I was 10. Today, they would haul him to jail for doing that, but, you know, that’s where I learned. The next year, I built my first skiff with him. I still have it.
I started out with a captain’s license running cruises out of Ogunquit. But I have more of a love of working on boats than answering tourist questions day in and day out. I love the woodworking aspect but, unfortunately, that’s becoming a dying art. It’s just easier to have a fiberglass boat.
The feel of being on a wooden boat is very different. The wood absorbs noises and sounds; it’s just got a softer feel. When you hit a wave, it doesn’t have a tinny sound like fiberglass; it’s more solid. There is extra maintenance with wood, obviously. You’ve got to take more care of the paint. It’s not like gelcoat where you can just let it go.
We’ve gotten really busy since the pandemic. With everything being shut down and social distancing, you could put your family on a boat, get away from the rest of the world and you’re all having fun. So the boating market went absolutely bonkers. We went from storing 110 boats one year to 160 the next.
I didn’t realize the mistake I made until spring rolled around. Taking care of 110 people is one thing; taking care of 160 is a whole different thing. We didn’t have more staff; in fact, we had less staff because so many people retired from work permanently, even at a young age. We were a mess that year trying to get everything done and boats in the water. So, I said, no new customers. We have a waiting list now.
If I had my druthers, I would rather build boats than just maintain them. Bringing something new to life is really interesting, getting the chance to do it right the first time. When you’re maintaining somebody else’s boat, you often end up having to rework things to make them right.
The oldest customer we have, we replaced the engine for him. The boat is a 1980 Cape Dory and the engine was new with the boat. It didn’t owe him anything. We didn’t just put a new engine in; we replaced the intake hoses, the exhaust, the wiring, instrument panel. Everything related to the engine was new. It was like a brand-new car. The new car smell wasn’t there but, as far as the engine goes, it was turn the key and off you go. That was 10 years ago and it’s still running fine.
I’m 67. My father worked up until he died and, if I can do it, I’m going to do the same thing. I feel very lucky in that I don’t feel like I’m coming to work every day. This is what I’d be doing as a hobby; I just happen to get paid for it. If I had more staff, I could certainly haul more boats. Anybody who’s looking for work, come on down. I’m happy to teach anybody anything they want to learn — they just need to be willing to put in the time.
Finestkind Boatyard is at 11 Bristol Way in Harpswell. For more information, call 207-833-6885 or go to fkby.com. Finestkind Scenic Cruises operates in Ogunquit from May to October: Call 207-646-5227 or visit finestkindcruises.com.
