| The pickin's are mighty slim until you get to Portland. The additional driving
time to the Portland would be worth it because it would get you into Casco Bay.
You might try the South Portland Marina (there are probably other places in
Portland), Handy's Boatyard in Falmouth Foreside, Yarmouth Marine/Boatyard (but
then you have to go up and down the rather narrow Royal River), South Freeport
has Harraseeket Marine and Rings Marine (turn right at the big Indian on RTE 1
just north of Yarmouth).
I spent 4 years with Haraseeket and was VERY happy with the location. They're
under new management and seem to improving the amenities so it might even
be better than it used to be.
Ed
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| We just found a mooring at Dion's in Kittery, Maine, and we are sorely
tempted to take it. It's contingent on our using them to transport the
boat from home to Kittery. We live near Nashua and the nearest safe
alternative we could find was three hours away in Casco Bay, a lovely spot
but a sobering drive with a two-year-old. The mooring at Dion's is
probably one of the most secure spots available, but a good $200 to $300
more than comparable moorings in, say, Newburyport. (We cannot legally
moor in Mass this year due to tax complications I won't go into here.)
When we asked around about Dion's, we heard several reports of "horror
stories" -- people getting minor work done, finding the job was less
than perfect and the bill spectacular. When I took the power squadron
sailing course a few years ago, my instructor said they virtually rigged
his sloop backwards.
We would only be there one season, and though we don't expect to have
other than emergency work done, we are feeling sort of vulnerable. Just
in transporting the vessel to Nashua last fall, the truckers and yards
managed to add about $200 of non-value added costs to our bill, not to
mention knocking out our neighbor's cable tv line, and tearing one of
our hateches off its hinges ("not our problem mon") so we're feeling kind of
vulnerable. Once someone in the mairine industry "has" you, you are
kind of at their mercy.
Does anyone out there have any first-hand experience with the yard?
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| FWIW (not much, probably): This isn't first-hand, but years ago I heard
that Dion's of Salem, MA and Dion's of Kittery are/were owned by brothers
who parted ways. Both even then were renowned for their rates (very
high). Salem, however, had the better reputation for work, and had more
of the gold-plater crowd as clients, which may have just resulted from the
accident of being situated next to Marblehead. Back about twenty years
ago (when you could buy a used Concordia yawl for $35-65K depending on
condition,) they had one 35' sloop waiting for pick-up which had been
entirely replanked and redecked. The bill was almost $40K, and the yard
hands were speculating on whether the owner was going to bother to show up
at all.
J.
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