So long as it’s not snowing, late winter is a good time for road trips in these parts. And so, one gray day in mid-February, I found myself not lost but confused as I picked my way along a poorly marked detour around bridge work in Augusta, headed for Wayne, a small town surrounded by lakes and the home of Androscoggin Wooden Boat Works and Lyman whisperer Chris Cushman.
We had just started work on this issue of the magazine—by design, our May/June efforts focus on the freshwater side of Maine—and I was curious to visit Cushman’s shop, which specializes in maintaining and restoring the sort of lovely lapstrake powerboats that once were common sights on inland waterways across the country, before the advent of multi-outboard speedsters, jet skis, fiberglass wakeboard boats, and aluminum pontoon party barges.
Originally a house builder who repaired boats as a hobby, Cushman launched Androscoggin Wooden Boat Works in 1995, and over the years, restoring Lymans in particular became his thing. Rather than patch and mend, Cushman and his crew have developed the jigs and molds and know-how to, for instance, install new ribs rather than sister in backups, craft new stems, or replace entire planks using proper fastenings rather than glues and epoxy.
On the day I visited, Cushman had five boats in the shop and just two guys helping with the various projects that needed to be completed in time for spring launches. Hiring craftsmen is tough these days, Cushman said, especially in a rural place like Wayne. He joked that most young guys aren’t interested in relocating to a town where entertainment can be hard to find.
One of his biggest restorations in recent years was the 16-foot Miss Nancy, a 1941 Lyman Utility, the last one built. Her owner had retrieved the boat from a New Hampshire storage shed and had located a rebuildable Grey Marine engine nearby. Both were shipped to Wayne, and Cushman went to work, replacing pretty much everything but the steering wheel: stem, keel, planks wiring, ribs, and transom. With some original parts missing, his extensive knowledge of how Lyman built its boats paid off as he fashioned new seats, an engine cover, and even a windshield to replace the existing one that just didn’t look right.
When the job was done, the owner took the boat on a tour of antique boat shows across the country, and then donated her to the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York.
Right after I met him, Cushman told me, “You have to have a passion to work on boats.” He would know.
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