Noyce orders yacht for summer cruises> Two Maine firms to build 88-foot boat

PORTLAND — Elizabeth Noyce, a philanthropist who has invested millions of dollars in saving and creating jobs in Portland, has decided to lavish some of her immense wealth on herself.

Noyce has ordered an 88-foot luxury yacht from two Maine companies, Lyman Morse in Thomaston and North End Composites in Rockland.

A lifelong boating enthusiast, Noyce will take the yacht on summer cruises along the Maine coast, said Owen Wells, her attorney and spokesman.

Wells declined to say how much Noyce is spending on the vessel, which was described by Cabot Lyman, president of Lyman Morse, as traditional and “elegant, not glitzy.”

“It won’t be a James Bond kind of boat,” Lyman said. “It’s going to be very pretty.”

Noyce’s order has thrust the two Maine companies into a new, global market.

“The clientele for a boat like this has the world’s boat yards to choose from,” said Chris Evans, president of North End Composites, a subsidiary of Sabre Corp., a South Casco-based boat builder. “This is a very significant contract.”

Noyce’s yacht will almost certainly be written about in yachting magazines and noticed by yachting enthusiasts, generating more business for Maine boat yards, Lyman added.

“That’s one of the reasons she’s having it done here — because it helps the people,” he said. “We couldn’t be more pleased.”

The yacht’s hull and decks will be built of fiberglass by North End Composite. The vessel will then be completed by Lyman Morse.

Within the yacht will be three staterooms, a main salon, dining room and pilothouse, all characterized by fine craftsmanship.

“You’ll have a main salon built of teak, and a lot of cherry in the staterooms,” Lyman said. “That’s the living space and where the fine finish work takes place.”