About Great Falls Boat Works

My name is Ray Frechette. I have been involved in woodworking, furniture building, and building trades for better than 20 years in various capacities and have been largely a self directed learner of woodworking.

I say self directed as opposed to self taught as I have learned immeasurably from reading the works of boatbuilders and woodworkers who have committed their experiences to pen and paper and preserved their knowledge in books. To them and to current builders who have shared knowledge with me I remain indebted, and perhaps will repay by helping others starting in the craft some day.

I developed a love of woodworking and carpentry from my grandfather. He also inculcated a love of the water and boating as he owned a camp on a nearby lake and had me overnight many many summer nights and weekends.

When I was 16 I saw plans for a small gaff rigged sailboat built of plywood in Popular Science magazine and wanted to build one in the worst way with my grandfather at that time but he declined as he felt he did not have sufficient skills to build a boat. He really did have the skills, but did not want to take a stab at it. So, I had to spend some time learning the skills necessary myself, and then I had to busy myself earning a living for myself and my family. About 6 years ago, I had the skills, time and money to construct the craft as a father son project with my son. In honor of my grandfather, and in appreciation of all he did for me in my youth, I named it Le Vieux Pepere, which is French for "The Old Grandfather" Naming it in French pays homage to my franco-Canadian roots.

At the time of completion I had no expectation to ever build for hire, but life has a way of surprising you. I was a full time landlord with 35 rental units and had my hands full with that. And then the City I live in decided that they could not live without purchasing 2/3 of my property under threat of eminent domain in order to give the land to another investor.

So when life serves you lemons, Make lemonade. The sale of the property allowed me to rearrange my life and become semi retired. I chose to pursue changing a hobby to an income producing one. There's an old nautical saying, "You can't alter the direction of the wind, but you can alter your course and trim your sails to go where you need to go."

So, with my time and abilities, and your money, together we can build an heirloom craft that can be cherished and passed down through the ages...

Often enough I get questions as to why and how I came up with the name Great Falls Boat Works. I was not blessed to grow up on the Coast of Maine with a rich boatbuiilding heritage to draw on. I grew up in Lewiston. As a child it was a gritty mill town of predominantly franco Canadian descent. Textile and Shoes still held sway in my childhood, and the river powered the engine of industry in the town.

In fact, Maine was originally settled on the outer islands by fisherman. The islands of Monhegan and Matinicus as well as Metinic provided the fishermen a place to sleep and dry the fish on racks yet also provided some protection from Indian attack.

Settlement then proceeded to the Coast of Maine. As roads were few and of questionable repair, the Ocean coast and the navigable rivers were the highways of commerce. The major navigable rivers gained importance as the population grew, and the need for timber necessitated going inland. The Penobscot river was very important in this respect and Bangor, Maine (Home of the Paul Bunyan statue) became known as the "Lumber Capital of the World". A bit down stream is the town of Winterport, so named as it was the northernmost port on the river that would tend to stay ice free and navigable in the winter.

The Androscoggin River is where I live. It is however quite unnavigable given its numerous cataracts and changes in elevation that makes navigation by large ships impossible. The Native Americans who lived here before settlement did use the river for transportation quite extensively In fact, before the dam was built, the West Pitch of the Great Falls was deemed navigable by the Indians when sufficient water flow was present. Also, the Indians sused ti catch Salmon with nets at the falls when the atlantic Salmon made their migration up stream to spawn.

Lewiston and Auburn Hence became settled much later than other towns. It was in fact the very aspect of the elevation changes that made the area attractive for Industry. Great Falls, the waterfalls at the very Heart of Lewiston, and Auburn is what attracted industry to the region. A granite arch cobbstone dam was built over the falls, and an elaborate canal system through the town was hand dug by Irish Immigrant labor that came to escape the potato famine. the water power from this dam and canals is what powered the numerous mighty textile mills that turned lewiston from a tiny hamlet to the Industrial Heart of Maine in a very few short decades.

Indeed it was this very growth orf industry in the late 1800's that drew the Canadians down to Lewiston from the farms of Canada for work. My Great, Great grandfather was among them along with his family including my young great grandfather. So in a very real way, I live here because of geology, and the presence of the falls.

So Great Falls Boat Works is an apt name, and in fact sounds better than LandLocked Boat Works would.

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