builder

Ahoy! Fellow shipmates!  We are Marshall and Jo Duhaime and we own

Marshall is a ship’s carpenter who became a  mechanical/metallurgical engineer because it was the “yuppie” thing to do.  Unfortunately, working in a laboratory 9 to 5, did not satisfy his soul and he decided that he just had to get back to the water.

He bought the Guilford Boat Yards in Guilford, Conn. in the early 70’s and while this was satisfying as the business grew, once it grew to the point that he was stuck in the office, he sold it to his brothers to get back to his real love of building and restoration.

Now that we live in Maine and he has a computer devotee as his “Woman Friday” he is able to do that which he truly loves doing … working with wood.  There is something so satisfying about taking that which once was a tree and smoothing, shaping and forming it into the loveliest shape … a boat.

Jo (that’s me) has a background in studio art and art history.   I design our business and personal web pages and do the bookkeeping (somebody has to do it…) and answer the questions via the newsgroups, forums and email.   If I do not know the answer, I get it from Marshall.  It is our goal to gently educate people about wood boats.  If a wood boat is taken care of properly, she will last for many, many years.  My other love is teaching special education students..

The spring after we started Classic Boatworks we were among many others who were honored at The Blaine House Conference for small business. We had the opportunity to meet the Govenor and take part in discussions on running a business in Downeast Maine.