June 15, 2010
Near a century before Chuck Chaney's time, the 500-foot pier was home to minesweepers being built for the U.S. military. Today, it's port to megayachts enjoying summers in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
Chaney is both dockmaster of Wotten's Wharf and maintenance superintendant and crane operator of Boothbay Region Boatyard. The adjacent properties are on the north side of Mill Cove, surrounded by a beautiful backdrop.
"A lot of the yachts like to be starboard-to for their stern to face out. It's a great view and you can see the lighthouses," Chaney said.
Boothbay Harbor has marina facilities for smaller vessels with 30 slips, holding boats to 80-feet with limited draft. Wotton's Wharf targets the large yachts with no slips on the 12-foot wide, 500-foot pier. The two joined forces when Wotton's purchased by Boothbay Region Boatyard in 2004.
Chaney said Wotton's is quite suited to the megayachts with the dock designed for every size and configuration of passarelle or steps on the 12-foot width.
"And we're ahead of the curve on power set-ups," Chaney said. "We have many yachts here specifically for the power set-up; every 50-feet we have a power tower, 10 of them. Yachts can set-up two 100-amp cords, one off the bow and one off the stern."
Chaney attended Florida Institute of Technology in Jensen Beach, Fla., in the late 1970s for a degree in offshore marine technology, taking courses geared to navigation and oil drilling.
After school, he left Florida working as a mate on M/Y Regina, a 100-foot Trumpy, as the boat headed to Maine for the summer.
"Everyone made such fun of me, telling me that I would freeze to death in the summer because I came from Florida," he said.
Next he delivered a boat that was used for whale excursions and spent three years working on that in the early 1980s. Then Chaney worked as a mate on a tugboat for Winslow Marine doing coastwise towing and military defense work, traveling from Boston to Canada.
"With coastwise towing there are a variety of vessels we worked with, it was a nice mix. They would ask for volunteers and I got more sea time than anyone because I was also the cook, I was single and could always go," he said.
"And I was low man on the totem pole as far a pay."
Chaney had training as a cook while working in a restaurant during college and he realized happily fed shipmates are the best type to work with.
"Before I got there they had TV dinners and sandwiches with lunch meat," he said. "I would fix a big ham or turkey and prepare home cooking. When they had a per diem I could save money and then buy the guys beer," he said, "and that made everyone happy."
After the tugboat job, he joined Boothbay full time. He married his friend's sister, Debra, and they have three daughters, two in nursing school and the youngest starting high school.
As a cook, Chaney said he does make tasty chicken marsela and veal parmesan.
"But," he said, "my wife is still the better cook."
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