Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors

12/14/2025

Goodby Newport, hello Portland!

12/13/2025

Pugnuts Ice Cream Shop is reminiscent of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor, and that's just one of the quaint locations to visit in Surry. The charm of Pugnuts drew Mimi Steadman here. A short detour off Route 1 just west of Ellsworth, and you'll spot the whimsically named shop’s pink-framed windows bearing a cartoonlike, curly-tailed pug that offered an irresistible invitation to enter. Steadman swears she's never had better gelato. According to co-owner Eric Treworgy, the shop’s 19th-century building was once the Surry General Store. He hopes the spirit of that old store lingers in the ice-cream parlor, with customers discussing local happenings over a sundae or cone, just as they once would have done around a pickle barrel.

Surry is a place where you can still run out of public road, full of authenticity and that rustic Maine charm we often go looking for down the less trodden trail. Surry is home to one of 34 pieces in the Maine Sculpture Trail, which stretches along 300 miles of the Downeast coast. Created by Jo Kley, the sculpture is titled “Wave Sounds.” It's easy to imagine sailors on Surry-built ships heard a siren song, luring them from this quiet little town to faraway seas.

Follow Steadman to Surry here: https://buff.ly/hD9RC6T

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.