Comment on Rhode Island-based company acquires Boothbay Harbor Shipyard

A Rhode Island-based company has acquired Boothbay Harbor Shipyard, which provides repairs and other services for all vessel types. Shipyard operations will continue under the leadership of Vice President Eric Graves, according to a statement Wednesday by Bristol Marine. Improvements to the facility are planned. “Under Eric’s leadership, the shipyard has undertaken some of the greatest repair and restoration projects in New England – and I know that Eric, together with the yard’s talented shipwrights and skilled workers, will build on that past success and effect improvements that will make their skills and services more available to today’s boaters,” said Andy Tyska, president of Bristol Marine, in the statement. Terms of the acquisition weren’t made public. Boothbay Harbor Shipyard was founded in the later 1800s and has worked on tall ships, superyachts, tugboats, Navy vessels, sailing yachts and workboats. Ongoing projects at the yard include the restoration of the schooner Ernestina Morrissey, the official vessel of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a National Historic Landmark with a sparred length of 156 feet, and the 171-foot, three-masted tall ship Friendship of Salem, owned by the U.S.