Brooklin Boat Yard wins $1.5M for upgrades
Grant will help fund construction of new building and create 10 new jobs, company says
Feb. 25, 2026
By Steele Hays
Brooklin Boat Yard will create a new technology building as part of the grant. Photo courtesy of Brooklin Boat Yard.
Brooklin Boat Yard (BBY) has been awarded $1.5 million in funding from the Maine Technology Institute to build a new 7,520-square foot service and technology building that will let the company take on more projects and hire 10 additional employees, according to a Feb. 24 company release.
Governor Janet Mills announced the awards from the Maine Technology Asset Fund earlier this month. In all, 23 Maine businesses and research organizations were awarded funds “to drive growth in Maine’s innovation economy.” The winners were chosen from 113 applications seeking a total of $127 million in funding. The funds are provided in the form of interest-free loans with a matching funds requirement, with the potential for up to 50 percent loan forgiveness based on financial performance. BBY will match the state award with an equal amount of investment from its own sources.
Brooklin Boat Yard was founded in 1960 by Joel White and is now an employee-owned company led by president Brian Larkin. BBY has built an international reputation for design, construction and restoration of both sail and power boats. It also provides maintenance and storage services.
The new facility will be built on BBY’s current waterfront property in Center Harbor and will include a clean space for composite projects, a machine shop, and a 3D printing workshop, the company said.
The Maine Technology Asset Fund program initiative is designed to spark private investment and fuel growth across Maine's technology sectors. The funds must be used for infrastructure investments supporting the research, development, and commercialization for innovative products and services that can create quality jobs for Mainers.
Four of the 25 awards went to Hancock County organizations–only Penobscot County had more, with five winners.
In addition to BBY, the other Hancock County winners were:
Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor was awarded $960,000 to build a new animal husbandry and lab space to test new therapeutic compounds made from marine algae.
Bold Coast Seafood in Gouldsboro was awarded $1.25 million to expand its capacity to process and sell Jonah crabs, a common bycatch from lobster fishing.
The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor won $2 million to renovate an existing building on its campus to create a state-of-the-art “Humanized Mouse Model Production Facility”--essentially breeding mice to provide advanced research models used for human immunology, oncology, and infectious disease research.
The Maine Technology Institute was founded and funded in 1999 by the state Legislature. It provides “grants, loans, equity investments, and services to foster Maine’s innovation economy,” according to its website. Since inception, it says it has provided more than $372 million in funds to businesses and leveraged $2.2 million in additional private investment for 4,000 projects across Maine.
