History

My love for wooden boats started at a very early age. My father was an amateur boat builder, who began building a 38' ketch in our backyard when I was two years old. By the age of five, my father would let me "help" him by drilling holes for screws that he would install later. After launching the boat, we spent ten years sailing our 38' ketch fondly named "Yankee" on the Sassafras River and the Chesapeake Bay. When I was ten, my father bought us a 1959 14' Thompson to restore as a family. We used the boat for several years then moved up to a 1958 18' Chris Craft Continental. We were so anxious to start working on it that we accidentally removed the interior but had to reinstall everything so that we could have "before" pictures. I learned a lot about what to do and not to do during those first restorations.

By eighteen years old, my father decided to sell "Yankee" to fund his next boat; a 42' Motor sailor. My brother and I found ourselves without a boat to enjoy and could not live without a summer on the bay. We found a 35' 1956 Owens that had been damaged in a hurricane and with a $3,000 loan plus help from our father, we got her back in the water.

We spent the next ten years fixing and maintaining the Owens. I met my wife while fixing up the Owens. She was working on her 32' Seafarer sloop that her father built from a bare hull. When I saw her in coveralls and sanding the bottom of her boat, it was all I needed to see - love at first sight. Soon after meeting her in 1997, I obtained a job at Haines Vintage Watercraft, which was the start of my professional career. I worked with Mike Haines for five years then I decided to go out on my own. Will Stahlgren, a coworker from Haines, and I began together on wooden boats by traveling to different marinas in the local area and performing repairs for customers. After two years, we started looking for a place to set up a restoration shop. We found an 8,400 square foot shop on five and half acres that once was a former spinach packing plant. The building was more than we had ever hoped to find but it was our dream. My wife and I fell in love with the place and decided we could make it into a place where we could build a house and grow our business.

Wooden Boat Restoration LLC first opened its doors in 2003. Shortly after moving from our home outside of Pennsylvania, my business partner and I parted ways. However, I soon hired local talent to work on our beautiful restoration projects. Currently, we have three highly skilled employees, who strive for perfection and continue to expand on their abilities. We pride ourselves on providing our customers with quality repairs and restorations that will last for many years and provide lasting memories.

-George Hazzard