Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors

12/09/2025

Join us in Rockland August 7-9, 2026! The Maine Boat & Home Show Early Bird offer ends soon! Sign up to exhibit before December 31st and SAVE. Returning exhibitors lock in your 2025 rate before prices increase. New exhibitors save 5% off of the 2026 rates. Don't wait! To reserve your early bird space, email [email protected]. For more information, head to our website https://maineboats.com/boatshow

12/09/2025

Photogrammetry has been rising in popularity with retired General Motors auto engineer David Cockey and his wife, Katherine, also a retired auto engineer at the helm. They have been using photogrammetry for the past decade to create incredibly detailed 3D computer images of historic vessels in Maine and elsewhere. What is photogrammetry? It involves taking multiple, overlapping two-dimensional photos of an object and using triangulation to create a three-dimensional model. The concept has been handy for use with traditional boats, where there are often no original plans to reference.

Full story: https://buff.ly/unqbvsv

Photo 1: This image shows the cloud of millions of dots created during the process of creating the 3D computer image. On the screen are some of the many photos taken of the boat from different angles.
Photo 2: David and Katherine Cockey displaying the detail of a Rushton canoe on David's laptop.

12/05/2025

The Mill River Race is an annual event with a historic following. Created by two runamok kids in 1910 with a stolen canoe and a flag, each summer on a day when the tide peaks in the mid-afternoon, North Haven Dinghies race down the Thoroughfare, up Vinalhaven’s Seal Cove, and into Mill River. They wind their way around various islands and rocks, round a mark, and race back to the Casino. Once in the “river” all rules of the road are suspended except port-starboard and rock room. Things get tight as the dinghies squeeze through tiny passages, the free-for-all is made more chaotic by tidal currents, submerged rocks, and the spectators picnicking and cheering on the contestants.

While their parents sailed these boats in traditional ways, the kids used them as knockabout transport- and the race was born. It continues annually!

Read our full story at the link: https://buff.ly/kYjEaCq

Photo: Alison Langley

11/28/2025

Don't miss this Black Friday deal! Give the gift of Maine all year long!

You don't even have to put on your boat shoes to shop for this Black Friday offer! A 1-yr subscription to Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors is just $19.95. That's over 60% off the cover price! Makes a great gift for the boating enthusiast or anyone in your life who loves the Maine coast. Follow the link and give the gift of Maine all year long: https://ezsubscription.com/mbh/subscribe?key=7BLK25

11/27/2025

Mashed, baked, scalloped or stuffed, potatoes are a staple at any holiday meal. Even with mechanical diggers, harvesting them was hard work for man and horse alike. You can see what was involved in digging spuds in Van Buren, thanks to this Way Back When photo from the Penobscot Marine Museum's collections.

https://buff.ly/QEsLsIa

11/26/2025

Way Back Wednesday: In May, 2010, Wilbur Yachts of Southwest Harbor launched the BETSY, three years after starting construction.

For more about this stunning-looking boat, click here: https://buff.ly/t46lXfR

11/25/2025

Wow, that’s some cloud!

Colby Morris, MWOBS' Mesonet and Information Systems Technician, spotted a lenticular cloud over the summit of Mount Washington today on his way to Crawford Notch around 8am. 👀

11/25/2025

Boats of the Year 2025: Tips for Fog, Buoys & Lines -

The 2025 edition of Boats of the Year includes in-depth articles from experts in the marine industry on a range of topics. These final three stories point out that preparedness, maintenance, and some common sense go a long way to promote confident and safe boating, even amid fog or a field of buoys.

11/22/2025

Did someone say paradise?

"A Maine Sea Captain’s Adventures in Paradise" walks us through Christina “Chrissy” Shyne's time integrating ancient “schooner technology” from centuries ago into a 21st-century sailing cargo ship that will eschew fossil fuel and instead be propelled by the wind, functioning on solar-powered electricity. From Rockport, Maine to the Marshall Islands Shyne went on the adventure of a lifetime.

Read all about it here: https://buff.ly/PHdLrVA

Photo courtesy Chewy Lin/LCST 2025- The ship JUREN AE barrels along under full sail in the Marshall Islands.

11/20/2025

MBH&H is happy to be a 2026 sponsor of the Maine Outdoor Economy Summit to be held January 21-23 in Portland. Our team is looking forward to joining industry partners and community members to share ideas and questions about the future of Maine's outdoor recreation economy.

11/19/2025

MBH&H is grateful for the opportunity to support the Rockland Public Library and the Festival of Lights Silent Auction each year along with many other businesses in our community. In addition to the traditional trees and wreaths, beautiful handmade stockings are available to bid on. We've filled one up with some goodies so be sure to check it out!

Join Boats, Homes & Harbors and the Maine Boat & Home Show in supporting the Rockland Public Library. They will be hosting their annual "Festival Of Lights" Silent Auction and Book Sale on Saturday November 29th. Bidding will be open from 1pm-4pm on over 30 trees, wreaths, and stockings from local business, including MBH&H! The book sale runs 11am-4pm and features low cost books, puzzles, and more gifts. All proceeds benefit the Rockland Public Library.

11/18/2025

This vehicle is more than an old pickup truck. It’s one of Larry Oakes’s many “rat rods”—custom cars that he has patched together out of old parts and assorted odds and ends that happen to be lying around.

The body may be a Studebaker, but it’s powered by a 425-cubic-inch Cadillac engine. The headlights come from an old Model A. The sideview mirror says Harley-Davidson on it. The door handles are old toolbox handles, and the sun visor that’s attached to the roof comes from an ancient Coca-Cola machine. An old Coleman stove gas cannister is attached next to the engine just for the hell of it, and an empty Fireball cinnamon whiskey bottle serves as an overflow for the radiator. On the back, Oakes took a pair of kerosene oil lamps from a horse-drawn carriage dating back more than a century and converted them into taillights.

Read more about the rat rods here: https://buff.ly/byP1ads

Photo 1: Larry Oakes has fun patching together old parts and odds and ends to create unique custom-built “rat rods.” This 1941 Studebaker pickup truck has a Cadillac engine, Model A headlights, and an empty Fireball whiskey bottle that serves as an overflow for the radiator.
Photo 2: Oakes’s ’55 GMC pickup truck has more than half a dozen disabled fi****ms or parts of fi****ms that can be found from front bumper to tailgate and points in between.