Shipyards Directory

Cape Cod Ship Building Co

sailboat builder Wareham, MA, United States

Cape Cod Shipbuilding Co. is a family-run builder of traditional fiberglass sailboats based in Wareham, Massachusetts, on the Wareham River. Founded in 1899 as the Cape Cod Power Dory Co., the yard built wooden pleasure, commercial and wartime craft before pioneering fiberglass construction in the late 1940s, and today produces classic one-design and daysailing hulls including the Herreshoff Bull's Eye and H-12 1/2, Goldeneye, Marlin Heritage, Shields One-Design, Rhodes 18, Mercury, Raven and the DaySailer I, for which it is the class association's authorized builder. The company also supplies spars and rigging through its Zephyr Spars division, sells replacement parts for its own boats, brokers used boats, and offers repair and winter storage at its waterfront property.

Cape Cod Ship Building Co

Cape Cod Shipbuilding Co. is a long-established, family-owned boatbuilder in Wareham, Massachusetts, tracing its origins to 1899 when the Gurney brothers founded the Cape Cod Power Dory Co. The yard moved to its present site at 7 Narrows Road in 1925 and has been led by the Goodwin family since 1940. It built wooden pleasure and commercial boats, plus military tugs and launches during World War II, before becoming an early adopter of fiberglass construction in the late 1940s. Today it builds traditional fiberglass sailboats, many to classic designs it acquired outright, including all of the Nathanael Herreshoff designs purchased in 1947.

Services

  • New fiberglass sailboat construction, built to order with standard and racing configurations
  • Custom spars and rigging through the in-house Zephyr Spars division
  • Replacement parts for Cape Cod-built DaySailer I, Shields and catboat models
  • Repairs, including rudder replacement and racing bottoms
  • Winter and seasonal boat storage on the yard's waterfront property
  • Used boat sales, launching, rigging, name painting and delivery

Vessel Types

  • Herreshoff Bull's Eye, H-12 1/2, Goldeneye and Marlin Heritage
  • Shields One-Design (Sparkman & Stephens)
  • DaySailer I (Uffa Fox) — authorized builder for the DaySailer Class Association since 1995
  • Rhodes 18, Mercury, Raven and Atlantic
  • Retired designs with molds retained: MK Dinghy, Beverly Dinghy, Gemini, Cape Cod Cat

Facilities

  • Waterfront yard with approximately 1,500 feet of frontage on the Wareham River
  • Fiberglass molding shop and retained molds for both current and retired designs

Location

  • Cape Cod Shipbuilding Co., 7 Narrows Rd. (P.O. Box 152), Wareham, MA 02571, USA
  • Phone: 508-295-3550; Fax: 508-295-3551
  • Office hours: Monday–Friday 8 AM–12 noon and 1 PM–4:30 PM; Saturdays by appointment, with additional spring Saturday mornings