A deep freeze enveloped New England this past winter unlike any I can recall. Weeks went by in Connecticut when the high temperature never crested 25 degrees and the low regularly dipped into the double-digits in the wrong direction. Running from the house to the truck to warm it up before retreating back indoors was the extent of my time outside. It was, for lack of a better word: brutal.
Perhaps looking for a reminder of warmer days to come, I drove north along a Connecticut River so frozen it seemed I could drive across it. I pulled into the boatyard to visit an old friend. Sitting on stands with snow atop her tight shrink-wrap coat, the faithful Bertram looked, well … frigid. It seemed as if she might shatter like safety glass with a single swing of a hammer. Half a stone’s throw away rested the Travelift, hibernating after a fruitful fall.
I sat in the truck for a few minutes and tried my best to envision the yard in spring, around the time this issue lands in your mailbox. This will be my first spring back in a boatyard after a number of years of keeping the old girl in my driveway. I can’t wait for the energy that comes with spring in the yard. I can practically smell the intoxicating mix of mud, resin, Interlux, and wax. If I close my eyes, I can feel the way a fresh blade pops the ties under the hull and then glides across the shrink wrap, making that first clean cut and signifying the baptism of a new boating season-—it always plants a smile on my face.
I can see it all so vividly in my daydreams: ladders extended, extension cords crisscrossing atop the gravel, small talk, and the whir of buffers filling the damp, warming air. Somewhere, a couple of people are playing music from Bluetooth speakers, a mix of country and classic rock. As the day marches on and temperatures rise, more cars roll into the yard; the ship’s store swells with customers stocking up on clamps, polish, rags, and flares. There is a palpable excitement as baskets of supplies swell.
These days hold such promise—anticipation for the return to our beloved pastime reaches a fever pitch as the calendar flips from April to May. Yard employees field countless frantic calls, not unlike stockbrokers on the trading floor of Wall Street: “Buy, buy, buy. Yes, as soon as possible.” As anxious boaters swarm like bees, those yards do their best to manage the chaos that comes with the changing of the seasons.
Perhaps the best aspects of spring for us northern boaters are the hope and promise that lie before us like waypoints. So far there have been no mechanical issues, no stretches of foul weather and, heaven forbid, no weekend weddings or funerals. At this moment, the looming boating season is perfect.
I have a friend who likes to say northern boaters “earn their summers.” After the third-coldest winter on record, I know he’s right. Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder. It’s the short, cold days that make us appreciate the spring revival so much more.
See you on the water,
Dan
daniel.harding@firecrown.com
@danhardingboating
This article originally appeared in the May 2026 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
