BHCS receives new playground skiff
Hewes & Company and Brooklin Boat Yard team up to build, deliver skiff
Brian Larkin, president of Brooklin Boat Yard, and Eric Blake, vice president at Brooklin Boat Yard, delivered the skiff to the school. Photo courtesy of Waxwing Business.
April 22, 2026
By staff
BLUE HILL–Students at Blue Hill Consolidated School have a new favorite spot on the playground. According to a press release, Brooklin Boat Yard delivered a freshly built wooden skiff to the school, replacing “a well-loved predecessor,” also donated by BBY, that “had finally reached the end of its service.”
The kit for the new boat was donated by Hewes & Company of Blue Hill, the release said, and the skiff was built by the team at BBY.
On delivery day, “students cheered as the BBY crew carried the hull from the truck to its new home in the sand,” the release said, adding that the new skiff “immediately became the most crowded seat in the yard.”
Shannon Larkin's pre-K class was thrilled to play on and explore the new skiff. Photo courtesy of Waxwing Business.
“A boat on a playground is a classic piece of coastal childhood,” said BBY president Brian Larkin in the release.“When we heard the original one was at the end of its life, donating the kit was an easy yes. Kids in this community grow up around boats — we’re glad to give them one more to climb into.”
Interns from the Webb Institute–a college in New York devoted to naval architecture and marine engineering — helped with the build, the release said. The students interned at BBY during the project and “lent a hand on the playground skiff between their work on the yard’s larger boats.”
According to the release, the donation “reflects a pattern of quiet, practical generosity between local trades businesses and the community’s schools.” The release noted that Hewes & Company and the Brooklin Boat Yard are “just a few miles down the road” from each other and that while they have each “built reputations in their fields that reach well beyond Maine,” they remain “deeply rooted in the place that shaped them.”
The new skiff at the BHCS is symbolic of their shared commitment to this place, the release said.
