Boatyards along the Royal River in Yarmouth, Maine?

[catamount]

I'm curious as to what you all know about the various boatyards along the Royal River in Yarmouth, Maine (or anywhere between Falmouth and Freeport), as potential places for future winter storage and DIY work on my 34' sail boat. My mother-in-law lives in Yarmouth, so although its 3+ hours from my home in Keene, I would at least have a place to stay while working on the boat...

Thanks,

[tartan30cirrus]

I wintered at Brewer's South Freeport marine for 2 years and last year for the first time wintered in my driveway. Brewers was GREAT. The folks there are very patient and kind to DIYers AS LONG AS YOU TELL THEM WHAT YOU ARE UP TO!!! especially the yard manager. They run a very tight ship there and you'll pay for it too. A T30 colleague/friend keeps his boat at Royal River Boatyard and I have heard equally excellent things about them. Lots of DIYers there and super service when you need it. I honestly don't think you'll find a better boatyard than these two in the area and highly recommend you visit to get a feel for the place as you will want to be comfy there if you are doing a lot of work on your boat...also get the prices and talk to the yard managers about what you want to do...they will give you a good feel for where you want to be.

Cheers,
Clint

[Tim]

I would recommend Royal River Boatyard--a nice family operation. Competent, helpful and well run--yet low key and easy, without the feeling of oppressiveness found at some yards. The owner is right there, and just one of the guys. I go there for my mast stepping and unstepping needs, and if for some reason I needed a boatyard for something else, I'd go there first.

Brewer's South Freeport is neat and clean, shining-new, competent, expensive, rule-happy, and, to me (admittedly a curmudgeon-ly Yankee at heart), not a happy place. The corporate roots are from away, and one can tell instantly, in my opinion. There are other yards in Maine that feel this way too. Every boatyard has to decide which sort of boaters they are trying to cater to, and this chosen aura projects clearly from all the yards mentioned here.

Everyone's needs and tastes for boatyards differ. Brewer's SF and RRBY are vastly different in the way they feel and operate. One might suit you better than the other. I find little in common between the two, other than the fact that both work on and store boats. Both are competent, and neither is inexpensive.

Also in Yarmouth is Yankee Marina and Boatyard, on the opposite side of the river from RRBY. This is also locally owned and operated, and there are some very good people there who have been working there for 20 years or more. I question the quality of some of the seasonal employees there, though this is a fairly common boatyard problem. While I prefer RRBY of the two, I have no reason to not recommend you consider Yankee Marina as well. It's closer to RRBY in character, with a trend towards Brewer-esque in some ways.

All of the local yards, to my knowledge, allow DIYers without a problem, Brewer's SF being the tightest about this. If I had to pick the first local yard that might someday choose to disallow DIYers, I'd pick Brewers. For now, though, you can still work on your boat. Personally, I wouldn't care to "report in" to the boatyard about what I was doing with my own property that I deigned to store with them, but then again I'm known to have a bit of a stubbornly independent streak. (Ahem...)