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When it comes to coastal powerboat cruising, there’s
no place like home for the man whose grandfather founded The Hinckley
Company.
By Matt Trulio — Spring 2005
Even way back in 1928, boatyards were something of an
eyesore. At least that’s the way Benjamin Barrett Hinckley saw it
when he bought the one next to his home in Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert
Island in Maine. He had every intention of carting off the rotting hulls
and ripping down the dilapidated structure that housed the business.
Problem was, a lot of Benjamin Hinckley’s friends
and neighbors had boats in that yard. “When they found out what he
wanted to do, they said, ‘Where are we going to store our boats next
winter?’” recalls Bob Hinckley, the 69-year-old grandson of
the man who founded The Hinckley Company. “So he kept the yard open.
He simplified things. Everything was a buck. A quart of varnish was a
buck. A quart of bottom paint was a buck.”
During summers Benjamin Hinckley’s sons helped
out in the boatyard. The leap from boat storage and service to boatbuilding
seemed natural, and in 1933 The Hinckley Company introduced its first
“fisherman” (a.k.a. picnic boat)—a seaworthy, 36-foot-long
day cruiser based on a lobster-boat design.
That a lobster boat kicked off the Hinckley line is
as appropriate to the Hinckley family as it is to the state of Maine.
Like his grandfather and father, Bob Hinckley, who shepherded the company
through the 20th century until he sold it in 1997, did his share of lobstering
during summers growing up in Southwest Harbor.
Hinckley fell in love with the waters of coastal Maine,
particularly those within a day or so cruise of his hometown, and he got
to know them intimately. And though his family name is synonymous with
sailing (he was an avid sailboat racer in his youth), he is also a lover
of powerboats. In fact, his personal ride is a Hinckley Talaria 44 Flybridge
with twin Yanmar diesels and Hamilton jet drives. “I’m gettin’
on,” he says, “and I wanted a boat that’s very comfortable,
fast, and quiet. And I love the jets—I don’t have to worry about
the lobster traps. I can gunkhole. And the flybridge is excellent for
visibility in Florida and the Bahamas.”
Yes, he’s cruised aboard power- and sailboats of
all kinds in many exotic destinations, but his passion for his home waters
hasn’t faded. “I’ve sailed all over the friggin’ world,”
Hinckley says, “and I don’t think there’s anywhere as nice
as the coast of Maine.”
>> Next page >>
Part 2: “The coast of Maine has
something for everyone, and you can always find someplace private and
protected.” Page
1,
2, 3,
4, 5,
6, 7
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