Ellis, New Harbor, and Wilbur — three Maine yards worth the drive

If you summer in the Portland area, most of the week happens between the Royal River, Falmouth, and the Cape. The yards that actually built the boats you keep circling sit east of that. Ellis and Wilbur are on Seawall Road in Manset. The New Harbor stop is the Pemaquid peninsula. That is not a reason to skip them. It is a reason to know why you would drive.

From Portland, New Harbor and Round Pond are about an hour and a half in the car. Southwest Harbor is a different trip: roughly 150 miles, a bit over three hours if traffic is kind. A picnic-boat run the long way around is a serious coastal hop, not a Thursday errand. Drive. Look at the boat on the hard. Talk to the people who glassed it.

Ellis Boat Company — Manset, Southwest Harbor

Ellis is still a builder first. The shop is at 265 Seawall Road in Manset, the same stretch of waterfront where Ralph Ellis and Raymond Bunker started turning out lobster yachts in the 1940s. Don Ellis took the family name into fiberglass as Ellis Boat Company. His son Shane runs the yard now. They build 20- to 40-foot Downeast powerboats in-house, and they say more than 300 custom Ellis boats are out there.

What matters for a shopper: they also haul, store, and service, year-round. Indoor storage, a maintenance program, moorings in Southwest Harbor, mechanics and electricians with ABYC, CMET, and FCC tickets, plus wood, glass, and paint. They are not a Hinckley jet shop. An Ellis is a shaft boat — full keel and skeg protecting the running gear — which is the whole point of the hull. If you already own a jet picnic boat, this is not your winter yard. If you are looking at a pre-owned Ellis, this is the yard that knows the molds, the engines they put in, and which 28s had the roof raised.

They also broker their own boats. Ellis Boat Brokerage currently lists a spread of pre-owned Ellis 24s, 28s, and 36s, most of them sitting at the shop. A 2020 Ellis 28 Picnic Launch (“Sea Glass”) is in the fleet with a Yanmar diesel, keel and skeg, and the option to charter her before you write a check. Older 28s on the same list sit closer to a $100k target than any late-model Hinckley picnic boat will. Start at ellisboat.com.

Call Ellis when the boat you are considering is an Ellis (or a Bunker & Ellis), when you want the builder’s paper trail, or when you want a sea trial that is actually their charter program. Do not drive three hours for a bottom paint they can do in Yarmouth.

Ellis Boat Company
265 Seawall Road
Southwest Harbor, ME 04679
(207) 244-9221

New Harbor — Padebco, plus the yard in the village

There is no yard named “New Harbor Marine” that belongs in this trio. The picnic-boat shop a Hinckley-minded buyer actually calls is Padebco, six miles up the peninsula in Round Pond — the next harbor north of New Harbor village. They have been building and maintaining boats since 1962. Custom Downeast work runs 21–32 feet: cruisers, center consoles, walkarounds, plus skiffs and one-offs. They are a full-service, year-round yard with three locations, ABYC members, and a Yanmar dealer. Haul, launch, indoor / indoor-heated / outdoor storage, refits, repowers, and moorings in Round Pond Harbor. They also broker pre-owned Padebcos and other power and sail, which is the honest reason to call if you are shopping that size and shape. Site: padebco.com.

The yard that actually sits in New Harbor is Pemaquid Marine, 164 Huddle Road. They build the Banks Cove 22 (center console, lobster cabin, classic day boat) and run a full-service shop: haul and launch, brightwork, Awlgrip, outboard work, winterization, indoor heated and cold storage. Useful if you are already on the Pemaquid peninsula. Not a Hinckley alternative. pemaquidmarine.com.

From Cumberland, this is the easy eastbound day: an hour and a half, look at a Padebco, have a conversation, drive home for dinner.

Padebco
28 R-33
Round Pond, ME 04564
(207) 529-5106

Pemaquid Marine
164 Huddle Rd
New Harbor, ME 04554
(207) 677-2024

Wilbur Yachts — Seawall Road, Southwest Harbor

Wilbur is Ellis’s neighbor, a few hundred yards down Seawall Road. The site lists 200 Sewall Road; you want the Manset waterfront. Lee S. Wilbur & Co. started in 1973. The yard has built well over 200 custom boats, 28 to 70 feet — day boats, sportfish, motoryachts, commercial boats. Ingrid and John Kachmar bought the company from Lee Wilbur in 2001. “Wilburization” is a real word on their brokerage pages: a yard refit that brings an older Wilbur back to a standard they will put their name on.

Today the website still advertises new construction, brokerage, repair and retrofit, and off-season storage. There is at least one Wilbur 34 in their brokerage (SPIROL, a 2005 open-sided cruiser, recently under contract and listed out of Boothbay). Pre-owned Wilbur 34s that show up elsewhere tend to sit above a $200k hard cap.

Be clear-eyed about the shop. The Seawall Road property was listed for sale in 2023, and the last long-time operator’s public bio runs through that fall. The site is live; the contact form on wilburyachts.com is the right path. Email before you assume they can take a winter boat or a major refit this season. Worth the drive when the boat is a Wilbur, when you want a yard that has actually “Wilburized” one, or when you are already in Manset looking at Ellis and can walk the waterfront.

Wilber Yachts
200 Seawall Road
Southwest Harbor, ME 04679

Haul-out, service, brokerage — a Casco Bay owner’s cheat sheet

• Stay local for routine haul, winter storage, and spring launch if the boat lives in Casco Bay. A jet Hinckley still wants a yard that knows jets. These three shops are shaft, inboard, and outboard people.

• Drive to Round Pond / New Harbor (~1.5 hours) to look at a Padebco, talk Yanmar and storage on the peninsula, or see the Banks Cove shop while you are there.

• Drive to Southwest Harbor (~3 hours 20 minutes) to walk Ellis and Wilbur on the same road, see pre-owned Ellis inventory on the hard, and talk to the people who built the boat. Do not run a picnic boat there for a survey unless you already wanted that cruise.

• Brokerage: Ellis is the one with a real, current list of their own pre-owned boats. Padebco brokers Padebcos. Wilbur still lists boats, with thinner inventory. None of them is a substitute for a Hinckley dealer if the boat you want is a Hinckley.

If you’re shopping a pre-owned Ellis or Wilbur next to a Hinckley

The lines look related. The ownership is not.

An Ellis 28 is a semi-displacement shaft boat with a keel and skeg. It will not dock like a jet picnic boat, will not trim like one, and will not cost like a late-model Hinckley to buy. Ellis brokerage currently has 28s from the mid-five-figures into the mid-two-hundreds, which is the window a $150k / $300k shopper actually lives in. Ask who has maintained it (many listings have been through Ellis), gas versus diesel, hours since the last engine, and whether you are looking at a picnic launch (day boat) or a lobster yacht with more cabin. Charter one if they will let you. That is worth more than another hour with photos.

A Wilbur 34 is usually a bigger, heavier custom boat — more of a small motoryacht than a picnic boat — and asking prices on recent listings sit north of $300k. Keep it on the list only if you have room in the budget and you like the pilothouse. Ask whether it has had a yard “Wilburization,” and get the shop to talk to your surveyor.

A Padebco is the midcoast cousin: custom, smaller production, the builder still in the same harbor. Call them if the boat is a Padebco. Do not expect them to be a Hinckley jet specialist.

If the boat is a Hinckley, buy it through people who sell and service Hinckleys. Use Ellis, Wilbur, and Padebco when the boat on the list is theirs.