maine working waterfront

Spartan Marine: Stuck in the Bronze Age

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This story first appeared in the Island Institute’s The Working Waterfront newspaper, and is reproduced here with permission. Click here. 

Story/Photos by Kelli Park

In a world churning with change, there is a workshop in a cove in Georgetown where the strength of bronze has withstood the test of time. Spartan Marine makes the case that there are some things better left unchanged.

“The marine hardware business has endured,” says Neil Collins, general manager at Derektor Robinhood Marina, which owns and operates Spartan Marine.

“We make deck hardware that really speaks to a different time in the marine industry,” he continues. “There’s not a whole lot of people making bronze hardware anywhere anymore. I think we’re the only ones who make it in the States with these kinds of offerings.” 

The story of Spartan Marine begins in 1963, when Andy Vavolotis founded Cape Dory Yachts in Massachusetts, which produced thousands of yachts over the course of 30 years.

“Andy was dissatisfied with what was available for deck hardware, so he designed his own,” Collins said. “That’s what we still make. He started a bronze hardware business (Spartan Marine) for his own vessels,” and then sold the hardware to other yards.

“They did everything from sailboat masts to tables to architectural pieces. They did a lot,” said Collins. 

And they stuck to proven designs, explains Skip Collins (no relation to Neil), machinist at Spartan Marine and the man behind the metal since the 1980s (off and on).

“The hardware has stayed the same since 1963,” he said. “This hardware was in use in the 1800s. The cleats and everything have been like this for 300 years.”

Skip Collins, whose father ran what was formerly known as Boothbay Region Boatyard, has spent the past 60 years working in Maine’s maritime industry. He started out as a dock boy and remembers working at the boatyard in Cozy Harbor, where they “hauled boats out with a 4-wheel drive and a winch.” 

The casting for Spartan’s hardware is done at a foundry in Massachusetts, after which the pieces are transported to the workshop in Georgetown for Skip Collins’ finishing touches. He uses machinery from circa 1942 to shape and refine a variety of bronze marine hardware pieces, including cleats, ports, seacocks, and outboard motor mounts.

“We have an excellent reputation in the industry for our opening ports, which are really the finest made anywhere in the world. They’re incredibly strong,” said Neil Collins. “Our outboard brackets were adapted from a turn-of-the-century design. We’re the only ones that make these. These are very popular with people who have traditional looking boats, but still want to be able to get off and on the mooring.”

Although the hardware remains the same, the business has changed a bit with the times. In 2018, Spartan started a website for online ordering, and it uses distributors in Europe and Australia. In a time when 3-D printing is changing the concept of production and redefining the notion of efficiency, and electronics and composites are taking over more traditional aspects of the maritime industry, Spartan Marine still relies on classic craftsmanship to create works of art with a purpose. 

“A lot of it hasn’t changed at all,” said Skip Collins, whose hands are weathered by bronze. And for now, the Bronze Age continues to live on.

Airboats Find a Home in Maine Waters

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Long a staple for the swamps of the South, airboats are now finding their way into Maine waters. 

This story first appeared in the Island Institute’s The Working Waterfront newspaper, and is reproduced here with permission. Click here. 

Story and Photos by Kelli Park

The flat-bottomed, fan-propelled vessels have grown in popularity, and find practical use in shallow water. Airboat hulls are built with aluminum or fiberglass and are coated with polymer to protect against hard surfaces, including snow and ice.

Propulsion is achieved with an aircraft-type propeller and an aircraft or automotive engine, ranging from 50 horsepower all the way to 600 hp, and the boats can reach from 35 mph to 100 mph.

“Think of a reverse airplane,” explains Harpswell Harbormaster Paul Plummer, who uses a town-owned 20-foot airboat. “You know how airplanes have the props in front? Well, just flip it around. And put a boat on it. It’s literally pushing you with all that horsepower from behind.”

The airboat was invented in Nova Scotia by Alexander Graham Bell in 1905. Airboats were used for military purposes during World War I by the British Army in the Middle East, the Soviet Union in World War II, and by the U.S. in the Vietnam and the Iraq wars.

In the 1920s, Glen Curtiss, an American aviation pioneer and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry developed an enclosed airboat that could comfortably seat six passengers, while frog hunters in the Everglades tinkered with what they could find to develop their own version of the airboat. In 1933, Johnny Lamb and his friend Russell Howard built a 12-foot airboat using a second-hand aircraft propeller and a plywood rudder to work more efficiently in the Everglades, where they harvested 75 pounds of frog legs a night.

Shellfish harvesters in the Midcoast agree that airboats provide increased efficiency on the flats in more ways than one. Harvesters can reach their destination on airboats when the tide has already receded from the shoreline.

“The airboat makes the job a lot easier,” says Daniel Fortin, who digs for clams at Maquoit Bay in Brunswick. “It saves your legs. It saves your hips. You only run your boat for four or five minutes each trip in and out.”

Cody Gillis, who works with Fortin, agrees.

“It beats walking. It beats waiting for the tide in a regular skiff.”

Airboats also allow for easier access to different, possibly more fruitful, areas. “You can get in and out when you need to,” says Peter Holman, who’s been clamming in Maquoit Bay for 30 years and has enjoyed the benefits of his father’s airboat for the past four years. “You couldn’t do that with a regular boat.”

Being able to arrive and depart freely on the mudflats is also important for safety during medical emergencies and severe weather.

“They’re handy in case something happens out there,” Fortin noted.

Airboats gained prominence during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 for their ability to navigate over partially submerged buildings and wreckage. The so-called Cajun Navy evacuated over 5,000 people on 30 airboats in less than 36 hours.

Marine law enforcement officials realize the value of the airboat in Brunswick, with its 67 miles of coastline, and Harpswell, with 216 miles of coastline. Brunswick introduced the airboat to the mudflats in the mid-1990s, and Harpswell recently purchased a new 20-foot airboat with a 550 hp, 6.2 liter big block engine for $76,000.

Although airboat operators take small craft advisories seriously, the vessels can work on frozen bays in winter for search-and-rescue operation. Marine wardens also use airboats to conduct shellfish surveys.

Plummer, Harpswell’s harbormaster, warns that different skills are needed to operate an airboat.

“It’s a dangerous piece of equipment. It’s good to find out what the boat’s capable of,” he cautions, before zipping off in one.