Justin's Hand-Built Boat

Yarmouth Boat Yard's Justin Lester has recently completed building a Jericho Bay Lobster skiff. Justin, a service technician at Yarmouth Boat Yard and graduate of the The Landing School in  Arundel, Maine, began building his boat in September 2010 with plans he purchased from Wooden Boat Magazine.

Justin Lester recently completed this Jericho Bay Lobster Skiff

The boat is named "Maia" after Justin's niece and the Greek mythological goddess. Justin estimates the boat took approximately 400 hours to complete. At a rate of 8 planks a day, the strip-planked hand-built boat began to take shape. Accomplishing the compound curves and and completing the 15 1/2' boat in his parent's 16' garage were the biggest challenges, according to Justin.

It took Justin approximately 400 hours to complete the boat

"My wife and I joked that although we couldn't afford to buy a new boat we could certainly afford the eight planks a day necessary to build the boat," said Justin.

Justin plans to enjoy the boat this summer fishing on Casco Bay and hopes to sell the boat in the near future in order to begin his next project: a 30' Lobster Boat.

Justin is pictured here enjoying his boat on the Royal River