Brooklin, Wooden Boat School

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Brooklin

Tuesday, we crossed the Deer Isle Bridge and headed northwest on route 175 to Brooklin and the Wooden Boat School. Along the way, we passed through the town of Sedgewick. This is the town where Kurt’s sail loft is located. He gave us the grand tour and showed us his work. He’s currently in the process of making a mizzen sail for a Herreshoff A boat. Back on the road we blinked and drove right through the center of Brooklin. The center of town is so small, we didn’t realize we’d past it until all we saw along the road were trees again. There isn’t even a cross road, but only a T. We backtracked to the dozen buildings that make up town center. By now all our appetites were active and we wanted some lunch, but there’s no great lunch spot in town. We ended up buying sandwiches at the Cave, a small deli hidden behind a gallery on the T. From there we drove to the Wooden Boat School to eat. They have a lovely campus along Eggemoggin Reach. We sat on picnic tables overlooking their little bay filled with a fleet of lovely wooden boats sitting on their moorings. The sandwiches were ok, but the ginger snap cookies were great.

The Wooden Boat School and Wooden Boat Magazine campus is absolutely gorgeous, but the place is a bit “chi-chi.” The programs and school seems geared more to the hobbyist than serious boat builders. I found the town of Brooklin a disappointment. I had expected it to be more like Stonington with an active community that lived off the sea and boat building. Instead, it’s mostly big houses along the water hidden down long dirt driveways, not the working boat building community I had expected.

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Photos

Brookline 2
Boat Shed

Brookline 3
Wooden Boat School Main Building

Brookline 4
Wooden Boat Magazine Shop

Sedgewick
Kurt's Sail Loft