The Hinckley Co. has come a long way since the early days when founder Benjamin Hinckley and his son, Henry, built wooden work boats for Maine fishermen.

In fact, the company has come so far in 74 years that only the wealthiest people in the world can afford to buy a Hinckley today.

And that’s just fine with the more than 700 people who earn a living working for the boat builder, including 500 Mainers in the company’s Southwest Harbor and Trenton boat yards.

The price for the company’s popular Picnic Boat, for example, which borrows from the design of the Maine lobster boat, starts at $250,000. The most popular version runs a cool $400,000 and up.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in a Hinckley yacht, $400,000 would be a good down payment: The company’s 70-foot version sells for a very hot $5 million.

“It’s not unusual for people to buy three or four boats from me,” Philip Bennett, Hinckley senior sales director, said during a recent interview. “Building a long relationship of trust with our customers is really what this company is about.”

The company sells about 65 to 70 power boats and six to 10 sailboats (which require more labor) a year, according to Bennett, who declined to reveal Hinckley’s annual sales figure.

Unlike some of the other major players in the boat-building industry, Hinckley doesn’t use dealers or build boats that aren’t already sold. Its trademark is the craftsmanship of Maine carpenters, welders, metal workers, electricians and engineers, who sometimes spend more than two years building a single vessel.

That craftsmanship is backed by uncompromising maintenance and service, which sets Hinckley apart in an increasingly competitive industry, according to Bennett.

“Everyone in this company has a collaborative relationship, on some level, with the customer,” Bennett said. “We are creating something for the user. Every [boat] has somebody’s name on it.”

The Maine company has stayed alive, sometimes just barely, by offering customers new products and trying new approaches to building luxury boats. Even at the height of the Great Depression, Hinckley was building motorboats trimmed with mahogany to take wealthy summer people on Mount Desert Island out for sightseeing or fishing cruises.

When the United States entered World War II, Hinckley ramped up its operation to build 40 percent of the nearly 1,400 military boats built in Maine for the war, its work force swelling to 300.

With the end of war in sight, Hinckley sealed its fate as a luxury-boat builder when the company placed its first ad for pleasure boats in 1943.

But not until 1994, with the unveiling of its jet-powered Picnic Boat, did the company find a new footing in the industry – one that would lead to the biggest work force buildup in its history and give customers an exciting reason to take a new look at Hinckley.

“Hinckley is one of the marquee names in yacht building, and with the introduction of their Picnic Boat, is a model for a company that has innovated its way to success through up and down times,” Kenny Wooten, editor-in-chief of Yachting Magazine, said recently.

“The Picnic Boat’s appearance and spirit has been adapted by a number of companies since its inception, and I believe the industry does respect Hinckley for that innovation,” Wooten said.

It was under Bob Hinckley’s stewardship as company president in the early 1990s – the last Hinckley to own the business – that the Picnic Boat was designed and launched. Hinckley, like others, credits not only the simple beauty of the boat’s design, but the jet-powered engine that eliminated the need for a propeller as the prime reasons for the boat’s almost instant popularity.

Don’t forget that the price tag of $250,000 to $500,000 was attractive, too, for the people who couldn’t afford, or didn’t want to spend, millions for a sailing vessel.

Bob Hinckley, grandson of the founder, said the Picnic Boat’s success, ironically, led him to sell the company in 1997 to its present owners, a trio of businessmen who run the entire Hinckley operation from Boston. They are William Bain, Ralph Willard and Alexander Spaulding, who is Bob Hinckley’s son-in-law.

Repeated attempts to reach Willard, the company president, for comment were unsuccessful. Bain and Spaulding also have been unavailable.

According to Hinckley, who ran the company for 15 years, by the mid-1990s the boatyard needed to expand, along with other aspects of the operation such as sales and service, to keep up with demand for its new products, especially the Picnic Boat. The new owners had the capital to pull it off, he said, and have succeeded.

“The jet boat was so far superior to the prop boat we never looked back,” said Hinckley, who is now a semi-retired Hinckley yacht broker in the company’s West Palm Beach, Fla., sales office. “Once we got into the jet boat, we knew we had something. We knew we had a bear by the tail, and that’s why I sold the company.”

The new owners did what Hinckley had hoped: They took the boat builder to the next level in production, sales, service and diversification. And in the process, gave the company its strongest footing in perhaps its history.

In 2000, Hinckley opened a new 38,000-square-foot production facility in Trenton, an impressive compound where half of its 500 Maine employees work. The company also opened sales and service centers in Florida and Germany and bought Little Harbor Yachts in Portsmouth, R.I., where it also builds the popular Picnic cruisers.

This year, Hinckley opened a sales office in Michigan, continuing its expansion around the nation to better service its customers – old and new.

Through it all, Hinckley maintains its original boatyard in Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island, on the edge of the Atlantic, where employees build primarily sailboats.

“One of our biggest focuses right now is to become geographically diverse without diluting the experience that is Hinckley,” Bennett, the company’s longtime and senior sales director, said.

Although Hinckley and other boat builders have remained strong in large part by shifting their focus to power boats from sailing sloops, they build products that are more susceptible to economic downturns – even for the wealthiest customers.

Bennett said the phones in the Hinckley sales office were quiet following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, but picked up again this year. That is, until the recent stock market plunge, which has slowed boat sales again.

“There has been a softening for demand,” Bennett said, “but people who buy our boats are planners who understand value. In times of trouble, you always see a flight to quality.”

While the company waits for a rebound in sales calls, it focuses on all the other aspects of its growing company. Bennett and others say that no one aspect of the operation keeps it afloat. Like boat building itself, all of the pieces combined make Hinckley Hinckley.

“We have wonderful employees,” Bennett said, “and we count on them to build beautiful boats because that’s what we sell.

“We are trying to excel. It sounds trite, but it really works.”

Hinckley history

1932

Hinckley’s son, Henry, takes over running the boatyard.

1933

Henry Hinckley builds his first boat, a 36-foot-long “fisherman” motorboat used for fishing and chartering to summer people for 40 years.

1934-38

Hinckley builds a series of powerboats, ranging in size up to 42 feet, largely for prominent summer residents of Mount Desert Island who come from Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

1938

Hinckley builds his first sailboat, a 40-foot-long sloop.

1940

Hinckley starts the Manset Marine Supply Co. to distribute marine supplies, engines and equipment to other smaller boatyards.

1941

With World War II on the horizon, Hinckley goes to Washington to secure contracts to build military boats.

1942

By the end of the war, Hinckley builds 40 percent of the 1,358 boats built in Maine for the war. Employment swells to 300.

1943

With the end of the war in sight, Hinckley places his first advertisement for pleasure boats.

1945

Hinckley designs four new sailboats.

1950s

Hinckley begins experimenting with fiberglass construction.

1956

Hinckley builds its largest-ever wooden sailboat, the 73-foot-long yawl called the Venturer. Later renamed Windigo, the boat is still sailing.

1959

Hinckley begins production of its first fiberglass sailboat, the Bermuda 40, or B40, offering buyers customized options.

1970-1980

The Hinckley Insurance Co. and The Hinckley Yacht Brokerage Co. are created as separate entities. Henry Hinckley builds his last original design.

1979

Hinckley sells his company to Richard Tucker.

1980

Henry Hinckley dies.

1982

Henry’s son, Bob, and longtime friend, Shepard McKenney of Maryland, buy the company back from Tucker.

1989

Hinckley introduces a new power boat, a yacht named Talaria.

1994

Hinckley introduces the Picnic Boat, a 36-foot-long vessel designed by Bruce King that features an innovative water jet system that eliminates the need for a propeller.

1997

William Bain, Ralph Willard and Alexander Spaulding acquire the company. Bob Hinckley becomes a full-time Hinckley yacht broker.

2000

Hinckley establishes sales and service centers in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Kappein, Germany. Hinckley bought the Little Harbor Yachts company in Rhode Island.

2001

Hinckley builds a 68,000 square foot production facility in Trenton to keep up with the growing demand for its power boats and yachts.

2002

Hinckley opens a sales office in Michigan.