Mahone Bay's shipbuilding tradition runs deep — older than the town itself, older than any of the shipyards whose names we still know today.
Long Before the First Sawmill
The story begins with the Mi'kmaq, who built birch bark canoes along these shores for more than 13,000 years. The waters and forests of what we now call Mahone Bay supplied the materials — and the deep skill — that defined small craft on this coast for millennia.
British Settlement and the Rise of the Boatyards
British settlement followed in 1753 and 1754. Sawmills were soon established on the two rivers feeding the bay, fuelling a wooden boatbuilding industry that, over the next two centuries, would launch more than 1,000 wooden vessels from dozens of boatyards along the South Shore.
The Age of Yachts: Obed Ham Yachtworks
By the early 1900s, the work of the South Shore boatbuilder began to shift. Recreational yacht demand grew, and Obed Ham Yachtworks on Main Street became one of the great names of that era. Between 1901 and 1932, Obed Ham built more than 400 custom vessels — from a 16-foot catboat to a 128-foot yacht — for owners up and down the eastern seaboard.
A Craft Fades
By the mid-1970s the industry that had defined Mahone Bay was fading. Paceship Yachts closed, and with it went one of the last large-scale local builders. The skills that had been passed down through generations were at risk of slipping away.
March 2, 2011 — The Co-op is Born
On March 2, 2011, twelve founding members signed the papers that incorporated the Heritage Boat Yard Co-operative Limited under the Nova Scotia Co-operative Council. Their goal was simple, and ambitious: to preserve and promote the wooden boatbuilding heritage of Nova Scotia's South Shore — and to keep teaching the skills that built this coast.
Today, and Tomorrow
Today the co-op runs a working shed at the Mahone Bay Marina. We restore and build wooden boats, host events, and welcome visitors. We are 100% volunteer, and we depend on members and supporters who believe — as we do — that this history is worth keeping alive.
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