Walking The Plank : Cabot Lyman

Cabot Lyman moved to Thomaston, Maine, from Vermont in 1978 with a plan to become a boatbuilder.

Lyman was looking for space to rent, Morse Boatbuilding was struggling, and it wasn’t long before the two joined forces as Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding. Since then, the company has launched more than 110 vessels, many of them legendary voyagers and racers — not surprising, since Lyman is himself a legendary voyager and racer.

Lyman and his wife, Heidi, spent five years sailing and skippering boats in the Caribbean and Mediterranean after college. In 1987 they and their three boys sailed their Lyman-Morse-built Seguin 49, Chewink, on a three-year, 30,000-nautical-mile circumnavigation. Over the years since, the Lymans have sailed Chewink more than 95,000 nautical miles through the Pacific and Caribbean.

Innovation and diversification have been hallmarks of Lyman’s successful career. In recent years, LymanMorse, now led by son Drew, purchased Wayfarer Marine in Camden, Maine, and opened 250 Main, an elegant 26-room hotel in Rockland. This year, the Cruising Club of America gave Cabot and Heidi Lyman its prestigious Far Horizons Award in recognition of approximately 150,000 nautical miles of sailing.