• New Special Life Jacket Requirements in CT went into effect in January 2007.  From October 1 to May 31 all persons on board manually propelled vessels must wear a life jacket.  Canoes, kayaks, dinghies, jon boats and rowboats are included.  We have many life jackets from infant to fitted adult available for sale in the ships store.

    • - FALL Newsletter ’06 -  

    Boat Rentals

    		 Your boating adventure begins in a Triumph 170 CC with a 50 HP Mercury 4 stroke outboard.  Need a smaller boat for tubing or cruising?  Is your boat in for repairs and your family is coming for a visit?  Want to explore the rivers or go to a lake where your boat is not easy to take?  Just want to try a 17’ to see if you like it?   We have three 17’ Triumph boats available for rent 7 days a week!  At $199.00 for 4 hours and $299.00 for 8 hours including insurance you can be out on the water with just a call to us to reserve a boat for the time of your choice.  Longer rentals are available.  

    Hurricane Preparation

    2006 is an active hurricane season!

    Now is a great time to check your mooring lines and review your plans to secure your boat if we are threatened by a hurricane. Boat US says the safest place for a boat during a hurricane is hauled out on the land. We can haul your boat before a hurricane but this needs advance planning by all of us. We need to hear from you at least 4 days before hurricane is predicted to come ashore to plan haulout.    

     

    New Products

    Any one interested in 2007 Triumph Boats will be surprised to find them with a new engine. 2007 Triumph Boats now will be powered by Yamaha engines. We stock Yamaha fuel additives, 2-stroke and 4-stroke oil, gear case lubricant and grease for our customers and we can order parts for your Yamaha engine.

     Our mechanics will be attending Yamaha Service School this winter.

     

    2006 - 2007 Rates

    This season, we are offering a 5% discount on standard storage when the storage is paid in full by haulout and a 5% discount on trailer boat storage when storage is paid in full when the boat arrives.

     

    Summer Maintenance

    We have been working this spring and summer in the yard to make it a nicer place for our customers. We added over 46 tons of gravel to the yard.  Please help us keep the yard clean by using the recycle bin by the store and the trash cans in the yard.  We will accept oil and batteries for recycling.

     

    Mercury Outboards

    Check out our prices!   The new 4 stroke 2.5 and 3.5 HP Mercury outboards will be available in December 2006.  We have a few 2-stroke carbureted Mercury outboards left in stock at SPECIAL Prices.

     Two stroke direct fuel injected OPTIMAX engines are equal to the four stroke fuel injected engines in fuel efficiency but the 4-stroke engines are quieter.  If you plan to repower your boat ask us about the discounts available on select OPTIMAX outboards.  We will be glad to talk with you to help you decide if a 2-stroke or 4-stroke engine is right for your boat and your needs.

     

    Store Specials

    Our Winterizing specials flyer will be available in the store if you do not receive it in the mail.  Price increases in oil and steel have rolled into increased costs for motor oils, antifreeze, shrink wrap, and other winterizing items.  We get our best prices by ordering early so let us know what you need early and get the benefit of our best pricing.

    New Tools

    This year we have the new Mercury Computer Diagnostic System Tool in the shop to help our mechanics better service your Mercury Engines. This allows the mechanics to actually “talk” to the computer in your engines. This computer is compatible with Optimax engines, 4-stroke fuel injected engines and Mercruiser engines. The computer allows us to perform step-by-step diagnostic tests, check for poor engine wire connections and read fault codes stored in the engine’s computer. 

     

    Spring Painting

    DEP is working on new rules for the disposal of paint brushes, rollers and paint cans.  We will let you know where to place your used paint brushes, rollers, and empty cans in our Spring letter.  All sanding of bottom paint must be done with a vacuum sander and all debris scraped from the boat bottom and I/O will be disposed with the paint brushes.  We have a Fein vacuum sander available to rent at $15.00 per hour plus discs; call to reserve a time.

     

     

    - GBY In The News! -    
    The Guilford Boat Yard offers services common to most boat yards - marine engine repair, general boat maintenance, boat sales, yacht brokerage, and, of course, boat storage.  What sets this boat yard apart from similar operations is the friendly family atmosphere.  Anne Duhaime, seen here, greets everyone with a cheerful "hello," asking about their boats, making sure they have everything they need.  
    A Family Tradition

    After 250 years, boat yard 
    still maritime hub

    By Erik Hesselberg
    Executive Editor

     The old Guilford Boat Yard sits on a low rise along a bend in the West River.  This knoll, sloping gently down to the water, is a good place from which to launch boats, and they have here for at least 250 years.  These were swift, shallow-draft schooners and sloops and sturdy Yankee vessels ideally suited for the coasting trade.  Some sailed all the way to the West Indies.

                The last boat to be built at the Guilford Boat Yard was in 1956, a 46-foot ketch christened Endeavour.  Her keel touched water on November 29.  The yard is upriver from a railroad bridge which has six feet of clearance at high tide.  So Endeavour’s mast was stepped below the bridge.  The practice for stepping and removing masts is still carried on today, and the boat yard has a dock with gin pole on the west bank just past the bridge.

                The aura of old sailing days still hangs over the Guilford Boat Yard.  You feel it stepping into the ship’s store, a cozy place cluttered with marine hardware and boat gear.  A pot belly stove stands to the side of the counter.  Anne Duhaime, one of the boat yard owners, says it gets good use in late fall and winter when the wind is barreling in off the water.  “People just love that stove,” she says.  “In the winter, people come in from the cold and head straight for the stove.”

                Anne handles most of the day-to-day operation with her husband, Chris Duhaime.  The Duhaime family has owned the boat yard since 1970 and Anne Duhaime has been there from the early days.  “I didn’t know anything about boats when I first started to work here,” she says, noting that she started helping out while still in college.  “But my husband knows about boats.  He’s been boating since he was 10 years old.”

                The Guilford Boat Yard offers services common to most boat yards – marine engine repair, general boat maintenance, boat sales, yacht brokerage, and, of course, boat storage.  They employ seven or eight hands, from mechanics to yard workers who scrape and paint boats and haul them out of the water in the fall.  What sets this boat yard apart from similar operations is the friendly, family atmosphere.  Duhaime greets everyone with a cheerful “hello,” asking about their boats, making sure they have everything they need.       

                Yard hand Mark Fornwald is equally sociable.  A Clinton resident, Fornwald has been messing around in boats for much of his life.  He’s worked for the Guilford Boat Yard for the last three, taking care of smaller repairs like mounting motors, changing props, and painting hulls.  In that time, he’s collected a boatload of stories, and if you walk around with him, you can hear a few.  In fact, you’ll probably hear them all because Fornwald has something to say about every boat in the yard. 

                He points to a 20-foot fiberglass sloop with a nasty gash in her hull.  “See that sailboat over there,” he says.  “She was ripped from her mooring and went up on the rocks in Indian Cove during a squall last fall.  She was really wedged in the rocks.  We had a hell of a time getting her loose.”        Nearby sits a classic wooden sloop, 40 feet or so overall, and in the process of being restored.  “The owner has her almost done; but he went off to Keiv.  His boat’s not getting in the water this year.”   It’s hard not to notice a big hulk of a boat in the middle of the yard.  The vessel, an old lobster boat, is painted brilliant yellow with lime green trim.  “That’s Gertrude,” Fornwald says, adding that the boat belongs to the colorful owner of the Stony Creek Puppet Theatre, Jim Weil.

                The boat yard also holds a handsome pair of sleek fiberglass boats with powerful outboard engines.  These 17-foot, center console skiffs, equipped with 50-horsepower, four stroke Mercury outboards, are the boat yard’s latest offering – boat rentals.  The rentals are part of a national program launched by Triumph Boats, Duhaime says.  “We’re trying this for the first time this year, and so far, it’s worked out real well,” Duhaime says of the venture.  “People take the boats up to Old Saybrook or out to the Thimbles.  Anything that people can think to do on the water, they can.”  Interestingly, about half of the customers are from out of state, usually vacationing in the area.  One was a real estate agent looking to get a better view of newly listed waterfront properties.

                There’s a lot of history here at the Guilford Boat Yard and the Duhaime family is proud to be a part of it.  Still, this family of mariners always has its eye on what’s coming.  “You can’t just stay in one place,” she says.  “You have to change with the times.”

     This article was in the Shore Line Times, Vol. 135 Issue 20, September 2005     

    For more history of the boat yard, visit our History page.

     

    - FALL Newsletter ’05 -   

     

    Guilford Boat Says Goodbye

    On Aug. 19 the crew at Guilford Boat Yards said goodbye to an old friend, a 1920’s era Speedcrane.  The crane, which arrived in 1971, had served for 15 years as main means of hauling and launching boats up to 28’until the Travellift well was installed in 1985.  The crane was moved under its own power onto a flat bed trailer for a trip to Colchester for restoration.

    Faulkner’s Island

    The annual Open House at Faulkner’s Island will be held Sat. Oct. 1, 10 AM to 3 PM .  Rain date is Oct. 2.  Visitors must supply their own boat transportation. No public transportation is available from Guilford but ferry service from your boat to the island will be available.   Explore the Wildlife Refuge.  Visit the historic light tower. The Faulkner’s Light Brigade, The U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will be present. 

     

    Hurricane Preparation

    2005 is a very active hurricane season.  Now is a great time to check your mooring lines and review your plans to secure your boat if we are threatened by a hurricane. Boat US says the safest place for a boat during a hurricane is hauled out on the land. We can haul your boat before a hurricane but this needs advance planning by all of us.  We need to hear from you at least 4 days before hurricane is predicted to come ashore to  plan haulout.  

     

    Summer Maintenance

    We have been working this spring and summer in the yard to make it a nicer place for our customers. We added over 20 tons of gravel to the yard.  Please help us keep the yard clean by using the recycle bin by the store and the trashcans in the yard.  We will accept oil and batteries for recycling.

     

    New Faces

    We have two new employees this year.  In the store Pete Morgan from Clinton is here to help you find the items you need or write up your service requests.  In the yard Mike Lucibello, a senior at Sound School in New Haven, will help with hauling and maintenance.

     

    Store Specials

    Our Winterizing Specials flyer will be available in the store if you do not receive it in the mail.  Price increases in oil and steel have rolled into increased costs for motor oils, antifreeze, shrink wrap, and other winterizing items.  We get our best prices by ordering early so let us know what you need early and get the benefit of our best pricing.

     

    Boat Rentals

    Your boating adventure begins in a Triumph 170 CC with a 50 HP Mercury 4 stroke outboard.  Need a smaller boat for tubing or cruising?  Is your boat in for repairs and your family is coming for a visit?  Want to explore the rivers or go to a lake where you boat is not easy to take?  Just want to try a 17’ to see if you like it?   We have two 17’ Triumph boats available for rent 7 days a week!  At $189.00 for 4 hours and $299.00 for 8 hours including insurance you can be out on the water with just a call us to reserve a boat for the time of your choice.  Longer rentals are available.  

     

    2005 - 2006 Rates

    This season, we are offering a 5% discount on standard storage when the storage is paid in full by haulout and a 5% discount on trailer boat storage when storage is paid in full when the boat arrives.

     

    Mercury Outboards

    Check out our prices!   The new 4 stroke 2.5 and 3.5 HP Mercury outboards will be available in December 2005.  We have a few 2-stroke carbureted Mercury outboards left in stock at SPECIAL Prices.

     Two stroke direct fuel injected OPTIMAX engines are equal to the four stroke fuel injected engines in fuel efficiency but the 4-stroke engines are quieter.  If you plan to repower your boat ask us about the discounts available on select OPTIMAX outboards.  We will be glad to talk to you to help you decide if a 2-stroke or 4-stroke engine is right for your boat.