Hinckley adding 40 to Portsmouth workforce

PORTSMOUTH – A Maine-based boat builder is adding at least 40 new hires to its Rhode Island workforce this year in an effort to boost boat production capacity at its yacht yards in Portsmouth.
The Hinckley Co., based in Harbor, Maine, will begin assembling and finishing its Hinckley T34s in Rhode Island after bringing in the boats’ hulls and decks from Maine where they’re molded and laminated.
The work will happen at its yacht yard in the Melville section of Portsmouth and the abutting boatyard, Hunt Yachts, which Hinckley acquired last year.
“Today, the demand for this particular model is so great, we are expanding our building capacity to Rhode Island,” Mike Arieta, chief operating officer of Hinckley, said Wednesday in a statement. “This area, and [the Hunt] yard in particular, has a rich history of boat building going back to the Ted Hood era.”
Frederick Emmart Hood, a yachtsman and America’s Cup hall of famer, in 1985 built the Ted Hood Marine Complex in Portsmouth where he opened Little Harbor Marine. Hinckley bought his company in 1999.
To augment the added boat-building capacity, Hinckley is hiring an additional 40 full-time employees, bringing its total Rhode Island employees to 210, according to the announcement. New hires are in Maine for a 10-week-long training program with veteran boat builders. In addition to the new hires the company plans to add experienced Maine boat builders to the Rhode Island team to create what Arieta calls a “solid core of talent.”
Hunt Yachts builds a line of powerboats 25 feet to 36 feet in length in Melville and currently builds about 25 new boats a year, according to the company. Hinckley previously built Talaria 29 roundabouts and center consoles in Rhode Island during the early 2000s.
The company says it’s now planning for growth in the manufacturing of its Hunt line.
John Donahue, who’s worked with Hinckley for 17 years, will serve as production plant manager.

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