The Maine Classic Boat Collective - WoodenBoat All Access

Think of every cliché that has to do with nothing under the sun being new, that what goes around comes around, that history repeats itself or at least rhymes. An old idea given a new twist in Brooksville, Maine, shows that these sayings can underlie the enduring appeal of a very good idea.

At the Buck’s Harbor Marina in the heart of town, something called the Maine Classic Boat Collective (www.maineclassicboats.com) is running a boat livery of a type that was commonplace a century ago but rare today; not only that, but the organization is including vintage wooden yachts not just as part of the operation but at the core of it.

Tom Hollyday, who started working at the marina in 2025, was named its general manager early this year. The marina had been through significant changes in the few years before a new owner took it over, and it was he who brought Hollyday aboard. He started his waterfront career as a tall-ship sailor and wound up in Camden, Maine, running a charter operation for the owner of the Luke Powell–built HESPER, a 44’ plank-on-frame gaff-cutter built in England in 2004. But when the cutter changed hands, her chartering days ended, which is how Hollyday ended up bouncing around a bit and finally landing at Buck’s Harbor.

Among his duties was handling the day rentals of fast fiberglass outboard-powered boats, among them the Key West brand, rejuvenating a tradition at the marina that dated back decades. “I’ve always been about schooners and gaff-rigged boats, so to rent out like Key Wests was a-whole-nother world.” Hollyday said marina’s the new owner, Andrew MacArthur, prefers to keep a low public profile, has a keen eye for vintage wooden boats. Soon, the marina’s fleet expanded to include wooden-hulled N.G. Herreshoff–designed classics: CRICKET, a 12 1/2 built in 1975,and MANDALA, a 27’6” S-boat built in 1927. More yachts under 30’ LOA by other designers joined, too: TRI, a 28’7” plank-on-frame Alden Triangle from 1925, and GHOST, a cold-molded Sparkman & Stephens–designed Dark Harbor 20 built by Taylor Allen and John England at Rockport Marine in 1997. Some are still awaiting restoration, among them TRISKELION (ex-PALMETTO), a 1927 Herreshoff Stuart knockabout headed for restoration at Hylan & Brown Boatbuilders in Brooklin, Maine, at the end of 2026. Hollyday even jumped on the bandwagon himself, buying—for a mere $10—the 1888 Edward Burgess–designed cutter ELF (see WB No. 209), which also lies at Hylan & Brown awaiting a much-longer-term restoration.

Outside the cove that is home to Buck’s Harbor lies the stretch of water where the eponymous Eggemoggin Reach Regatta classic-yacht race has sailed annually since 1985, sponsored by Brooklin Boat Yard and Rockport Marine, accentuating the area’s reputation as a center of classic yachting. “We’re all kind of classic-boat fans,” Hollyday said. For the marina, “We found five or six deals that we thought were good, where the boats were in good condition; they were safe, the rigging was intact. And it as important that they were knockabouts, too, because, again, it’s the day boat concept,” as with the runabouts. MacArthur “kept sending me links, and then we would decide whether we needed to have a surveyor come out, whether we thought it would be a good renter, safe for the public. Really, his only goal is community access, and whether it’s the kids that are working here or whatever it is, it’salways community based.” GHOST and MANDALA both sailed in the regatta this year with local crews. The marina also holds community day sails once a week.

At the time I visited the marina on a fine August day, three local youths were doing seasonal work on a fiberglass-hulled Herreshoff Petrel, IBIS, at Brooksville’s much-beloved Condon’s Garage building, a setting for One Morning in Maine by the children’s book author Robert McCloskey. As Hollyday put it, “No one’s on their phone, right?” And the summer job gets them on the water regularly. “The kids are learning how to move boats,” he said, “they’re learning a lot about seamanship skills, ’cause that’s really my primary strength.”

In the end, it’s all about getting people on the water. The clients are usually summer people or vacationers staying for a week or two. Some are veteran sailors of the coast. “The people that inquire about those boats have all been really knowledgeable, or they’ve owned one. They’re like, ‘Hey, I owned one of these for 20 years, but I don’t own it now for obvious reasons—I just don’t want to take care of it anymore.’” It’s classic-boat use without the hassles of bottom paint, moorings, haulouts, and storage bills. For others, it’s a chance to take boat wooden-boat stewardship for a trial run. “Not many people have these boats, like S-classes, Dark Harbors, and for the people that do have them, they’re not publicly available,” Hollyday said. “If no one ever gets to go on these boats, if no one gets to grow up working at a marina that has them, why would anyone want to buy them in 20 or 30 years when they’re ready to make their first boat purchase?”

Most recently, the marina added a “new” harbor launch to its flotilla—a 1907 Fay & Bowen torpedo-sterned 22-footer that was substantially rebuilt and repowered at Hylan & Brown with an electric pod drive. Launched in late August 31, she’ll provide silent delivery of people, including livery customers, to moored boats. “I got a text message,” Hollyday said, “and Andrew was like, ‘What do you think about this?’ Cool! And he was like, ‘Oh, good—I just bought it.’” It turned out to be more of a project than anticipated (see Currents, WB No. 309), but it will be a handsome addition to the Buck’s Harbor milieu.

Of course, some modern museums carry on the livery-boat tradition with wooden boats—most famously The Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington, which marked 50 years of operation this year, and Mystic Seaport Museum’s small-craft livery. But it is somehow rejuvenating to see the concept taking the edge off the reputation of private marinas as necessarily exclusive places and classic wooden yachts as untouchable. When those ideas recur, they’re worth cheering.

Tom Jackson is WoodenBoat’s senior editor.