Description
The Hiliner Marine Peapod is a modern, fiberglass interpretation of the classic Maine lobster-pod rowing/sailing tender, produced from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s by Hiliner Marine (later Hiliner Boat Company) in Brooklin, Maine. At 13 ft 6 in LOA, 4 ft 8 in beam, and weighing about 165 lbs, the Hiliner Peapod faithfully replicates the sweet wineglass transom, lapstrake-look hull, and fine entry of the traditional wooden peapods once built by Lowell’s Boat Shop and other Down East shops, but in low-maintenance fiberglass with integral seats and flotation.
Most were sold as pure rowing boats with two or three rowing stations and spruce spoon-blade oars, but a popular sailing version was offered with a removable 65 sq ft spritsail rig (lug or leg-o’-mutton also common) on an unstayed carbon or aluminum mast and a small daggerboard just aft of the forward thwart. The sailing peapod is remarkably quick and weatherly for its type, planes easily downwind, and rows like a dream thanks to its light weight and perfect rocker.
Hiliner built several hundred (exact numbers uncertain, but production peaked in the 1980s), and they remain extremely popular on the Maine coast, Mid-Atlantic lakes, and anywhere owners want an elegant, beachable tender that rows beautifully and can be car-topped or trailered behind anything.
