At the helm of a family trade

BROOKSVILLE – Bob Vaughan looked up from the scaffolding in the paint shop at Seal Cove Boat Yard and used a no-name tool to scribe a new decorative line on a 50-year-old, 57-foot sailing vessel built, he said, for just one thing: winning races.

Vaughan preferred the traditional method rather than using a more modern laser to mark the line.

“You can do this with a laser,” he said. “But the boat’s got to be perfectly level, and you’ll spend half the day doing that. This saves time. Sometimes the old-fashioned ways are better.”

Vaughan likes the old ways when they work. He likes old tools that can do a job as well or better than a new power tool, such as the 100-year-old “slick,” a wide-blade chisel that he keeps at the boatyard. He doesn’t keep tools around just because they’re old, he said.

“But I do like it when a tool that has been around for 100 years is better for the job,” he said.

The boatyard reflects that attitude. It has existed since Vaughan’s father started it in 1936 on the shores of Seal Cove on Cape Rosier. Over the years it has evolved as circumstances required, adapting to the new, including a move to Horseshoe Cove in the 1950s, but still adhering to some of the old ways of doing things. Today Seal Cove Boat Yard is a full-service storage and maintenance yard that deals with a large volume of vintage wooden boats.

Maintaining vintage wooden boats can be a challenge, Vaughan said. It is different from building something new.

“You have to have a high level of understanding about how all the parts relate. And they don’t relate the same way after 50 or 100 years as they did when it was built,” he said. “It takes a level of understanding to be good at it. I like that level of technical knowledge and accomplishment, and I like working with the people in the yard and the people who keep their boats here.”

About 190 boats are in storage this year, some stored out of doors, some inside the 26 buildings around the site on the shores of Horseshoe Cove. The yard boasts 25,000 feet of inside storage space, where old-style cradles are used to support the boats instead of jack stands. As Vaughan said, the cradles are more stable. The yard boasts a 77,000-pound Travelift, and most boats are launched on a railway.

The six heated bays hold the carpentry shop, machine shop, fiberglass restoration and refinishing facility and a traditional paint and varnish shop.

The bays were full of wooden and fiberglass boats in need of maintenance or repair, ranging from basic paint jobs to new frames, deck and interior joinery. Among this year’s projects are repairs to a Concordia yawl and deck work on a Bermuda 40.

Although Vaughan admits to indulging occasionally in the “romantic fancies” surrounding wooden boats, he said he tries to limit major restoration projects these days. The same amount of work can be spent on a number of different boats, and it keeps the customers happier if they see that not all his attention is going to one project.

“And we make more money than on the high-profile projects,” he said. “We do one of those big jobs every three to five years now. We do pay attention to the bottom line.”

Hauling and storage provide the bulk of the income for the business, and he tries to balance the repair and maintenance work between wooden and fiberglass boats.

“Once you reach the threshold that you need to satisfy, you’re entitled to indulge in a little shameless romance,” he said. “But you don’t lose sight of the bottom line.”

There was little room for romance when Vaughan took over the yard in the early 1970s. He had been to law school and was a practicing lawyer when his father became too ill to continue the business.

“I couldn’t let it go,” he said. The business at that point was a “hardscrabble operation,” but he received support from a couple of boat owners.

The outlook for boatyards is good, Vaughan said. More people with disposable income seem interested in owning boats. More buyers are coming to Maine from around the country and Europe to have their boats built. And, as yards in southern New England close because the land becomes more valuable for other uses, demand grows for yards to store and repair boats.

With 190 boats in storage, Vaughan said, he doesn’t want too many more.

“We try not to grow too much,” he said. “I don’t want a customer to walk in here and not recognize them. Part of what I like about the business is knowing the people.”