Information about Rockport, ME

Fortunes rise and fall like the tide along the Maine coast, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in tiny Rockport. In the nineteenth century this deep harbor was filled with cargo schooners loading lime from the kilns here, while at the beginning of the twenty-first century Rockport became tranquil as the recession took its toll and longstanding institutions like the Maine Media Workshops (formerly known worldwide as the Maine Photographic Workshops) experienced growing pains. Beginning in 2010, though, downtown Rockport has come back to life, with the cherished Corner Shop breakfast joint springing back to life and a new gastropub, Shepherd’s Pie, bringing discerning diners back to the village’s streets in the evenings. Now back on steady footing, Maine Media Workshops is once again teaching the next generation of shutterbugs, and through it all the extraordinary boatbuilders at Rockport Marine have continued to handcraft some of the most stunning vessels afloat anywhere in the world today.

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Dowling Walsh Gallery

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Boating in Rockport, ME Map View

Rockport’s broad, deep harbor is protected in all weather except a southerly (when the northwesterlies are blowing, there’s no place cozier than here). Rockport provides a good anchorage for vessels of any size. The harbor is about 0.7 mile wide at the entrance between Indian Island and the western shore, and gradually narrows to the head. Vessels can anchor anywhere between the entrance and a point 1 mile southward of the head, in depths of 42 to 63 feet, soft bottom. There is little anchoring room near the head of the harbor, but there is plenty of room to drop the hook farther out. A few transient spaces are available at the town landing, which reports depths of 3 to 8 feet, and at the harbor’s famous wooden-boat builder, Rockport Marine, which also offers fuel and water and depths of 8 to 10 feet. A peek inside Rockport Marine’s signature red shed to catch a glimpse of the masterpieces under construction is a must, no matter whether you arrive here by land or sea.
The Rockport Boat Club, close westward of Rockport Marine, has a float landing with 3 feet reported alongside.
Navigation:
Click the “Map View” button above to see a chart of this harbor.
Lowell Rock Light 2, 25 feet above the water, is shown from a spindle with a triangular red daymark on the south end of Lowell Rock. A fairway bell buoy 0.4 mile southeast of the light marks the entrance to the harbor. A clock tower at the head of the harbor is conspicuous. Beauchamp Point, the eastern point of Rockport Harbor north of Indian Island, is prominent.
The entrance is deep and clear with the exception of Porterfield Ledge in the middle of the entrance. The depths in the channel range from over 50 feet in the entrance to 13 feet near the head. Passage is sometimes made by local small craft at high water across the ledge between Indian Island and Beauchamp Point.
Vessels can enter Rockport Harbor on either side of Porterfield Ledge Daybeacon, giving the daybeacon a berth of at least 150 yards. When in the harbor stand northward in midharbor until 0.3 mile from the head, then slightly favor the eastern side.
Hazards
Porterfield Ledge, in the middle of the entrance to Rockport Harbor, uncovers several feet at low water; a daybeacon is on the ledge. Indian Island, on the eastern side of the entrance, is grassy and marked at its south end by an abandoned lighthouse. An unmarked fish weir is on the west side of the harbor, about 0.3 mile southward of the entrance to Goose River.
Seal Ledge, uncovered at low water, on the east side of the harbor about 0.7 mile northward of the light, is
marked by a daybeacon.