Yankee Trader Work ethic, sense of thrift help build Searsport marine supplier’s success

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Wayne Hamilton bought his first lobster boat when he was 13. His parents co-signed the bank loan for a 14-foot aluminum skiff and his mother stuffed his earnings into a Band-Aid can until the note was paid off. Those carefully hoarded savings allowed him to trade up to a better boat just one year later and then, within two years, to an even bigger one.

That early lesson in thrift and hard work has stuck with Hamilton, who, now in partnership with his wife, Loraine, runs Searsport-based Hamilton Marine Inc., the largest marine supply business north of Boston.

With its acquisition last year of the former Rockland Boat Inc., the privately held company now has outlets in Searsport, Rockland and Portland, 110 employees and a catalog mailing list with more than 100,000 addresses.

Few locally owned ship’s chandlers in the Northeast have been able to survive, much less thrive, in the face of strong competition from national chains. But Hamilton Marine’s success is no fluke.

A shy, unassuming man, who sometimes seems to hide behind the thick lenses of his glasses, Hamilton is a careful listener and his brain works like a calculator. That canny business sense is paired with sincerity and a caring personality that leaves manufacturers, sales reps and customers feeling good about doing business with Hamilton even when they know they have been out-negotiated.

Longtime employee David Normann, who now manages Hamilton’s sales and marketing efforts, describes him as the quintessential Yankee trader – someone who always ends up on the right side of a deal.

“You have to buy right to sell right,” says Normann. “He always buys right.”

For example, at one point soon after he started the company, Hamilton discovered that Ames Department Store sold Peaks antifreeze at a lower price than his wholesale supplier. So he bought the cans of antifreeze at Ames and sold them at the same price to his customers. He earned his profit by mailing back the accompanying rebate coupons. Last year, Hamilton’s sold thousands of feet of hi-tech line to Cianbro as part of its construction of two offshore oil exploration rigs. Although the company did not make much of a direct profit, in the long run the deal helped make important points with the rope manufacturer.

But even as the company has grown, Hamilton has not taken his profits and left for greener pastures. He remains close to his roots and loyal to the community.

In addition to serving on numerous local boards, including the Waldo County General Hospital, Penobscot Marine Museum and Searsport First Congregational Church, he has been Searsport harbor master for 20 years, receiving for his efforts a small yearly stipend that in no way covers his time. For 40 years he has ferried ships pilots to and from tankers heading in and out of Searsport. This means getting up and out in his boat at all hours of the night and in all kinds of weather, including subzero winter gales, with very little notice as often as three or four times a week, says David Gelinas of Penobscot Bay and River Pilots.

“He gets paid for the trips, but it does not come close to covering the quality of the boat he maintains for us and the quality of the service,” says Gelinas.

Often in the winter, Hamilton must break the ice in the harbor just to get out to his boat for a pilot trip.

“I count my lucky stars all the time,” says Gelinas. “Here’s a guy who runs the largest marine supplier north of Boston and he takes time out of his busy day to be there for us. And he’s always on time. I’m never waiting for him. He’s always there first.”

This sense of concern for the community goes back as far as Wayne and Loraine’s first foray into business, a wedding photography company. A longtime photo buff who was disappointed with the images of his own wedding, Hamilton sought to provide Waldo County residents access to quality wedding photos at a reasonable price. He shot wedding photos for a decade before finally calling it quits.

He still prides himself on his photography and always has the latest in camera equipment on hand. One dramatic shot of a fiery Searsport Harbor sunrise graced the cover of one of Hamilton Marine’s recent catalogs.

The son of a Searsport longshoreman, Hamilton did not initially set out to go into business for himself. After graduating from Searsport High School, he spent eight years loading and unloading cargoes at the Searsport docks. A resourceful hard-worker, he also held down jobs as a carpenter, a lobsterman, night watchman for the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad and as a photographer.

An accident at the docks indirectly started him on his career as a ship’s chandler. Home recuperating from an operation on his back in 1975, Hamilton decided to stock up on supplies like rope and paint in his two-car garage and to go on the road hawking them from his pickup. His driveway and the neighbor’s soon were filled with commercial fishermen looking for deals.

With an eye for a good price and an innate understanding of what sells, Hamilton quickly built a niche and a reputation of going the extra distance to make a sale. His early sales pitch for survival suits included donning one himself and jumping off piers into the icy winter harbors up and down the coast.

He would show up at the nearest store or coffee shop and ask the guys huddled around the wood stove if they wanted to see a fool jump into the ocean.

“They’d all come along and watch,” he recalls. “When I got out of the water, they’d be shivering. I’d be so hot from the exercise, I’d unzip my suit a little and steam would pour out.”

The suits sold like hotcakes.

In 1980, Loraine, who had been working as a bank teller in Belfast, came home to help with the business. Two years later, the Hamiltons moved the operation to an old garage/gas station on Route 1 in downtown Searsport. Sales immediately doubled, then tripled in the new high-traffic location.

The company moved into even bigger quarters on six acres down the road in 2002. That operation now includes 11,500 square feet of retail space and a 12,000-square-foot warehouse, which supplies all the retail outlets.

The Hamiltons opened a store in Portland in 1995, starting in one small room then gradually expanding to 18,500 square feet. The first of his now ubiquitous catalogs came out in 1985 when he and Loraine mailed out 500 photocopies. In just two years, the number jumped to 20,000. Last year the privately held company mailed out more than 100,000 catalogues.

Commercial fishermen, recreational boaters and commercial shipping operators continue to flock to the company’s three locations, drawn by Hamilton’s large inventory and quality service at a good price.

“We try to make our store the place that has everything,” says Hamilton, quoting an early marketing slogan that described his company as “the one-stop ship shop that holds the key to the sea and causes a commotion on the ocean.”

The business remains very much a family operation. Two of Loraine’s brothers work there, as well as Wayne’s nephew and his wife and daughter. Even those who are not related respect Hamilton’s sense of fairness and trust him not to sell them out.

“He’s had many offers to buy this business,” says Normann. “But Wayne and Loraine seem to be in this for the long run. They genuinely care for their employees.”

The company’s annual Christmas bash is a good example.

Last year, more than 165 people chowed down on shrimp, roast turkey, prime rib and seafood Newburg, danced to live music and vied for thousands of dollars in door prizes.

Despite the company’s growth, both Hamiltons remain intimately involved. Wayne still waits on customers and prides himself on his personal knowledge of almost all the products he sells.

“He loves solving problems,” says Loraine.

While Wayne provides the business’s visible face, Loraine maintains behind-the-scenes stability.

“I’m the chief cook and bottle washer,” she says, laughing.

She’s not joking. Call Hamilton to make an appointment and he instantly will put you on hold while he checks with Loraine to make sure he’s available.

Wayne and Loraine met while each was in high school – Wayne in Searsport and Loraine in Belfast. She worked as a waitress at a Searsport restaurant where Wayne and his buddies used to hang out. They all liked the quiet, cheerful brunette but Wayne was the one who won her heart and the two married in 1969. They have no children, but have helped raise several relatives, including a 9-year-old great nephew.

In many ways, says Normann, the company’s financial success is secondary for Hamilton.

“He didn’t go into this business to make lots of money. He loves boats and this was a way he could afford to be on boats and on the water.”

But his experiences on and off the water enhance his ability to determine what will sell and how to answer customers’ questions.

Hamilton began messing about in boats as a 10-year-old hanging out on a summer resident’s 42-foot Wheeler sports fisherman. Later friends gave him a lapstreak rowboat and a 5-horsepower Johnson engine. He used the small tender to fish 12 lobster traps. But the engine was iffy and he wanted to upgrade. That’s when he went to the bank with his parents and bought the 14-foot Mirro-craft with an 18-horsepower outboard.

He understands engines, both marine and automotive. As a teenager, Hamilton drove a revved up Chevrolet Nova at the Winterport Raceway and he recently bought a 1928 Model T-Ford.

During high school, he moonlighted for an uncle doing plumbing and electrical work, earning his journeyman’s license.

He has even done a little boat building.

At one point an early employer asked him to replace the rotten garboard plank on a 38-foot Richardson. Not sure what to do, he bought a how-to book and followed the directions, building a steam box to bend the planks and getting heat from a wallpaper steamer that he rented from Trustworthy Hardware.

A derelict 30-foot wooden powerboat bought in 1976 provided a more advanced classroom. By the time he was done, Hamilton had rebuilt the engine, replaced all the wiring, refastened and replanked the boat.

He still tests most of the company’s navigational gear on Ciloway III, his 36-foot Flye Point cruiser finished by Wesmac. (The name Ciloway is a combination of Cindy, the Hamilton’s now long-dead basset hound, Loraine and Wayne.)

Early on in his company’s growth, Hamilton used to tell people that he hoped someday to be the L.L. Bean of the marine business. While cagey about his company’s sales figures today, he quickly dispels any notion that Hamilton Marine will ever be as big as the huge Freeport-based retailer.

He’s not concerned. Actually, a recent worry has been that people might perceive his company as being too big and taking business away from smaller operations.

“I do this because I love people and customers,” he says. “I like to give people a fair deal and keep them as happy as possible.”