The addition of a large 80 ft. x 150 ft. marina service building with its large 62 ft. x 60 ft. tall Schweiss bifold liftstrap door and 330 metric-ton self-propelled Marine Travelift is part of a 38-year business plan for Phineas Sprague, Jr. and his wife Joanna, who founded Portland Yacht Services in Portland, Maine in 1981. The expansion was done with his customers in mind.

That list of customers numbers around 12,000, many of whom return once every three years to have their boats serviced. Sixty percent of the boats hauled in by the Travelift are for commercial use.

"The goal was to create a shipyard for my harbor that will last a long time after I'm gone. The building, the bifold door and the Travelift were designed specifically to service particular boats of large size that are in the harbor. The opportunity is to save these people a lot of money in what they used to have to do to maintain their boats. Having an expanded facility here in Portland now means they won't have to travel long distances away from home. It will allow them to do the work on their boats in the off-season in a more controlled environment and to make sure the coating systems on their boats last five or 10 years by having tighter control on the environment. As a subarctic State, the ability to haul boats and bring them inside out of the weather and do the work quickly and efficiently is major money in the pockets of the boats that we service," explained Sprague.

"A good example of this benefit would be the value of more working revenue days for our customers. With this work, building the door, we are able to get a commercial boat out of the weather, turned around and back out on the water perhaps a month quicker because we are not waiting for the threshold of minimally acceptable weather conditions. Having the boat ready to work faster translates directly into found revenue. One owner said this performance improvement amounted to $100,000 a week," added Sprague.

Irishspan Industries owner, Dave Fitzpatrick, just completed his fourth project at Portland Yacht Services in Portland, Maine. Two of these buildings have large Schweiss Bifold doors. The marina service building has a 71 ft. tall eave height with a 112 roof pitch. Its 62 ft. wide x 60 ft. tall bifold liftstrap door is the second tallest door Schweiss has ever manufactured during its 40-year history, only second in height to a rocket hangar door at Cape Canaveral in Florida that is 90 ft. wide x 61 ft. tall. Schweiss also has manufactured other bifold and hydraulic doors that have exceeded 100 ft. in width.

The big door, with sheeting, weighed in at 42,415 lbs. and is windrated at 115 mph. For added strength it has one exterior truss and five interior trusses. It is equipped with four 5 h.p. motors, 24 liftstraps and an automatic latching system. Ten windows were installed in the door in order to take advantage of natural light.

Even though this latest door had a clear opening height of 60 ft. tall, Fitzpatrick said it didn't pose any significant problems to install.

"There were a few challenges installing this big door. I leaned on Dave Schweiss a little bit and he was instrumental in helping us get the door to go up straight. The owner of Portland Yacht Services always liked the original Schweiss door we installed four years ago," said Fitzpatrick.

Portland Yacht Services is a full-service yacht repair facility performing repair and refit of yachts, sailboats, commercial craft and government vessels ranging from 20 ft. to 300 tons. Until now, larger fishing vessels, tugs, ferries, yachts and schooners needed to bypass or leave Portland Harbor for service and repair because of Portland Yacht Services limited hauling capacity.

The design criteria for the Travelift, tall bifold door and the new building were the two boats representing the extreme widths, heights and weight in the harbor. The new 300 metric-ton mobile Marine Travelift with a 42 foot width (replaces a 150-ton Travelift) is capable of pulling the many larger boats and yachts out of the water that require repair, painting or maintenance in general.

The 42 ft. inside dimension of the Travelift is designed for the widest boat in the harbor, the Ft. Gaines, which is a landing craft, capable of carrying 22 cars or up to five large dump trucks, heavy equipment and dangerous cargo such as explosives. With this criteria an unexpected market opened up. Portland Yacht Service can also now service some of the wide catamarans and other vessels year-round in their well insulated and heated floor building. The disruption is that prior to this they could only service a boat about 32 ft. in width and the work had to be done outdoors.

The Schweiss tall door opening and building dimensions were designed specifically so the Travelift can drive the largest Casco Bay Lines ferry boat into the building. Casco Bay Lines is a ferry system that provides year-round passenger, freight, postal and vehicle ferry service to the islands of Casco Bay from Portland, Maine.

Getting away from the vagaries of Maine weather is important where historically, in addition to winter months, rain delays especially during the month of June also added unwanted setbacks.

"I think that the ability to produce a bifold door of this size allows the marine industry, in essentially a semi-arctic State, to be able to up the quality and efficiency and competently take care of the boats that have been made more complex by the added struggle with the vagaries of Mother Nature. It's impossible to do an excellent job applying modern coatings to a boat without a controlled environment; weather is uncontrollable, cyclical and a many edged sword when schedule is important," noted Sprague.

Not only will Portland Yacht Service be able to serve a diverse fleet in Casco Bay including commercial fishing vessels, fireboats and pilot boats, ferries and public agency vessels but it will attract vessels from all over the region.

Sprague said he first became acquainted with Schweiss Doors when he contracted Legacy to erect a building for him. They recommended a Schweiss door, but there was a mix-up which didn't enable Schweiss enough time to build the door.

The original recommendation resonated so he ordered a Schweiss bifold door for his next building. In 2014 Irishspan erected a 160 ft. x 180 ft. building for Portland Yacht Services - it has a 50 ft. x 46 ft. Schweiss bifold liftstrap door on it. To date, Irishspan has installed nine Schweiss bifold doors.

Irishspan Industries is well known on the East Coast for its many large and small building projects; they specialize in pre-engineered steel buildings.

"Installation of Schweiss doors is easy and the owners have been happy with them. I like Schweiss doors, they are designed and engineered well and I prefer the liftstraps over cables because they are easier, safer and cleaner looking - it gives you a better feel. The straps have less moving parts and are less vulnerable to potential problems," added Fitzpatrick.

He said he also gets prompt and helpful service from the folks at Schweiss Doors and the doors are delivered on time and in good shape. He'd recommend them to anyone.

"I know what it takes to make a project run as smoothly as possible and number one is communication. I'm very involved in every project," noted Fitzpatrick. "I learned the hard way from my mistakes and I typically don't make the same mistakes twice. I'm involved in construction as well. I understand that it takes more today than 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to run a business and because of this, you can always expect to hear from me," said Fitzpatrick who runs everything out of his home office.

"I work best with the end-user and negotiated work, shying away from the bid jobs that have a 90-page manual with them. If we come to a situation in the project, we can talk about it and move on. I work with five different building manufacturers and subs so we are sure to put you in the building to best fit your application and budget."

Portland Yacht Services

Portland Yacht Services is a full service boatyard and marina founded in 1981 by circumnavigators, Joanna and Phineas Sprague, Jr. It provides customers with a full spectrum of services for outfitting and maintaining a motor or sailing vessel. The Sprague's take pride in the fact they have never laid a person off in the history of the company. Their dedicated staff of about 40 employees with over 865 years of experience handles major restoration, refits and repair projects to wood and glass boats, including hull, engine, outboard, rigging, and electrical work, and they have an extensive marine parts department.

After graduating from Tabor Academy, an Honor Naval High School, Phineas was in his family coal mines, in the field and trained at Harvard as a geologist and has an engineering and nuclear field background.

"After my grandfather sold the company while I was in college, my world was shaken. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I decided that I wanted to sail and see the world - I'm allergic to the land and since six found relief being to windward in a small boat all day every day. It was a natural choice to find a place in the ocean to recover, learn, explore and think. I met my wife in Florida and married her in Bali. The trip was a four year geologic expedition to see all the places I studied and a personal growth experience," said Sprague.

Carving his own contribution with Portland Yacht Services, he still didn't fall far from the tree. His family is related to the founder of Portland and has a saltwater legacy since the 1600s, notably solving the first energy crisis having replaced wood heating with coal by reconnecting New England with the coal in West Virginia. C.H. Sprague & Son was a vertically integrated operation from the mines to the ships to the coal pockets, power plants, factories and homes. Including brief responsibility in WWII for export of all U.S. coal to Europe and in this role ran 50 Liberty ships - a tough record of excellence to run against.

Phineas went on to an ASME N Stamp Cat. 1 specialty steel fabrication company building nuclear power components, got his MBA, decided to stay in Maine, and was luckily asked to put a fender on a Boston Whaler in his garage and found joy. They went from there to build their current business.

Portland Yacht Services offers a full spectrum of services for motor or sailing vessels of any type or size from sales and maintenance to storage. They specialize in helping owners prepare for extended cruising. You can always trust Portland Yacht Service to provide you with worry-free boating 24-7, year-in and year-out. For 20 years, they've been providing state of the art mechanical services, hull repairs, electronic updates, indoor and outdoor storage, interior refurnishing, mast repairs, everything required to keep your boat safe and fun to be around. They can haul yachts up to 300 metric-tons, have a full-service rigging, welding, A/C electronics, fiberglass, paint/varnish, carpentry and cabinetry facility and more.

Preparing a vessel bound for the sea is a serious responsibility, and they adhere to the high standards of American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) and American Boat Builders & Repairers Association (ABBRA). Their mission is to guarantee that you can trust them to receive value and enjoyment from your boating experience and that it will always be worry-free. Whether on land or on sea, call or stop by to take advantage of all they have to offer you.

Portland Yacht Services, Inc. and their new One-Stop Service Center is located at 100 W. Commercial Street, Portland, ME. Ph. (207) 774-1067. portlandyacht.com

Irishspan Industries

The story about how Irishspan was formed is an interesting one that Fitzpatrick normally likes to share in person with his clients. He originally spent 25 years in the commercial bread business working for Thomas English muffins. With that career about to end, he was looking to start his own business. In the search he put together a list of prerequisites for a business and looked to see what would fit the bill. With zero construction experience, and halfway decent sales skills, he found one of the only things that fit the long list of prerequisites was selling pre-engineered steel buildings.

"So I got into steel buildings, surrounded myself with knowledgeable people within the industry and started with many hiccups 'Steel Buildings of Maine.' A year later, with a friend of mine who also had his own business, we formed Irishspan Industries, Inc. The name 'Irishspan' came from our heritage; I'm Irish and he's Spanish. We soon found out 'partners' are made for dancing and I now run the business by myself," explained Fitzpatrick.

More than a dozen years later, Fitzpatrick said he is looking at his best year ever.

Irishspan projects include building horse barns, riding arenas, hangars, commercial, retail, government and military buildings to include designing, concrete design and other general contracting work. No job is too big or too small; it takes him anywhere from New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and of course Maine. He has also quoted projects in Wyoming, Texas, Indiana out to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

At Irishspan, you are not just purchasing a building, you are buying peace of mind that the experience will be headache free from start to finish. Past clients and vendors would agree that when Irishspan commits to a project, they can count on them to deliver.

Irishspan is able to take your project from concept to design to erection, easily. They can be as involved as you want them to be or they can just simply provide you the building for your crew to construct.

Past projects include warehouses, horse barns, aircraft hangars, mini storage units and more. From a simple workshop to a commercial / retail building, from 700 sq. ft. to 50,000 sq. ft., no project is too big or too small. They have the experience and the resources to design your building to your requirements in accordance with all state and local building codes.

One of the many benefits of working with Irishspan is their service. From consultation to delivery, erection to punch-list, you will always be able to reach them directly.

Irishspan Industries is located in Arundel, Maine. Dave Fitzpatrick can be reached by calling (207) 229-2092. For more information visit their website at: https://www.irishspanindustries.com