HANCOCK—A coalition of residents has come together to save Hancock Marine Service, a 30-year-old boatyard with an interesting backstory in the town’s history.
Located down a long and winding country road on shorefront overlooking Sullivan Harbor, the yard provides important working waterfront access to fishermen and yachters alike, advocates of saving it say.
Phil Johnson, originally from Massachusetts, built the boatyard on the site of an old Maine Central Railroad terminal. In the late 19th and early 20th century, passengers used to take the train to the terminal, then a ferry to Bar Harbor. It is deep-water frontage that can accommodate the coastal ships that used to come in.
Johnson retired in recent years, although he still has facilities open for storage, and he’s renting a few moorings out to fishermen. He put the property up for sale, with thoughts of keeping an acre or so for a house.
Enter Ralph Cahoon, a lobster fisherman who has used the yard’s services for the past 10 years. A couple of years ago, Cahoon started talking with others in town to see if they would be interested in finding funds to buy the property and preserve it as working waterfront.
“It’s the only deep-water working area that’s left in Hancock,” Cahoon said, shortly after he and the group met with the board of selectmen, which agreed to re-establish the town’s Waterfront Access Committee.
“The yard has always been the type of yard that was open for the boat owners to be able to come in and have their boats placed in the yard and be able to work on them themselves. There’s not many of those left in the state of Maine,” he said.
The yard has all the amenities—electricity, water, gas, dock space, boat ramp and the deep water that allows a boat to land at any tide—needed by working fishermen, Cahoon said.
Other commercial fishermen who have used the yard over the years are harvesters of seaweed, mussels, clams and scallops.
As configured today, the mooring field accommodates about a dozen sailboats. There are about half a dozen workboats that use moorings in a field designated as a working area. This could be upgraded to accommodate at least 20 boats, Cahoon estimated.
“It has everything that is needed for working waterfront for both commercial and pleasure,” Cahoon said. “If it’s lost to a house in this area, there’s nothing else.”
Ted Walworth is a summer resident who agreed with Cahoon’s idea.
When the yard went on the market, the fear among interested residents, said Walworth, was the working waterfront access would be lost to a private property-owner attracted to the site’s spectacular views. That hasn’t happened so far, he said, and the price dropped to a level, $1.2 million, that might be affordable to a community initiative.
“This is official working waterfront, and we don’t want to see another ‘McMansion’ on the shore,” said Walworth.
The revived committee will provide the group with legitimacy as it seeks financial and procedural support.
“I think it needs to be a combination of private and state and federal monies,” said Walworth. “The most important thing now is to get our hands on the property.”
The group agrees with Johnson’s plan to carve off a site for a new home.
Johnson supports the initiative, although he hasn’t been actively participating.
“The town definitely needs a place like this,” said Johnson.