Sunday Spotlight: The Shop.

All these posts about the boats must be getting boring for the audience. So here's a post about exciting metal buildings. Located at 4 Rein Road
St. George Maine, the main shop (pictured) was built in 1997, the foundation had been finished for years but we were always too busy to worry about finishing the new structure. When one of our old clients wrecked his boat he wanted us to build him a new one immediately. With our only shop filled he proposed paying for the new building as down payment on his new boat. A deal was worked out and once the people at Morton arrived, the new building was done in about a week. Production on the 46' fishing vessel started shortly after the new building was completed. Boat capacity at the shop jumped from 3 to 6, that is the good news. Months after getting the new building set up a fire wiped out the old shop, half the tools, and two lobster boats that were close to completion. You would think that was the bad news. The real bad news was we didn't carry any building insurance. A couple weeks of depression later, we got back to work on the two boats in the "main (and only) building". Those boats were finished and then we rebuilt the two boats that were lost in the fire.

Welding is required on every boat that leaves the shop. In June of 2003 we had the opportunity to hire one of the premier fabricator in the state. I can remember a conversation with my father and I made a comment along the lines of "can we keep a welder busy full time?". Dan assured me that keeping him busy wouldn't be an issue. For the first couple months John worked from home in his garage. In August of 2003 we made him a garage (pictured) on the property so he wouldn't have to travel back and forth from his house all the time (he lives 1 mile from the shop). We invested in the building, tools, metal, and John ....... things couldn't have worked out better. My options as a builder are unlimited, John can make anything I need him to. And with his reputation all of the local fishermen come to us when the need expert welding done. Many of John's creations can be seen in the "launched" section of CIBW.com. These online photos of his metal work have led to direct sales of radar stands, davits, and bow bits.

"Building A" was built in 2001 by an associate of Clark Island Boat Works. Dan allowed the building to be constructed on his land and in return we would get a boost from the additional business. Originally planned to be a rental facility for people wanting to work on their own boats, it became a semi-permanent location for a competing boat building company. Long story truncated. Eventually (2006) we thought it would be in our best interests to purchase the building and after some negotiating a deal was reached and we had a third building. Since Dan owned the land he was in a good position to negotiate. Boat capacity back up to 5. In the past we have rented the shop to people working on their own projects or moved boats from the main shop to building A when they are close to completion. Right now we have two boats that we built being repaired (Fish Tales, Mirage). The back of this building (not pictured) has been converted into a machine shop and is home to two large lathes and a Bridgeport knee mill.

Alright now you've seen the shop. Interior pictures are available upon request. I'll try to dig up a picture of the old shop and put it in a future post, just for a point of reference. For those of you that are following this thing everyday (thanks) and I completed the seaclear project. It wasn't all that cool or complicated, plus it didn't get messed up. The website and blog are now officially "killing it". As of 11:13 pm the blog has 300 visits (since Feb 11th) and the website has 132 visits (in two days!!). I could bore you with more stats (what state the visits are coming from, average page views, visitor loyalty, etc...) but I won't.

Thanks for tuning in, only 12 posts left, enjoy this while it lasts.