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November 18, 2025

After a 3-year build, Rockport Marine launches 95-foot sailing yacht

A boat sits next to docks with people around it. Photo / Courtesy Russell Kaye, Rockport Marine Rockport Marine launched a 95-foot, custom-built sailing yacht earlier this month and began tests of its internal systems.
By Laurie Schreiber

After three years of construction, a midcoast boatbuilder launched a 95-foot, custom-built sailing yacht and began tests of its internal systems, as the final stage toward the owners’ plan to cruise the world.

The launch took place earlier this month in Rockport Harbor.

Rockport Marine built the “superyacht” Ouzel to the specifications of Langan Design Partners, of Newport, R.I., with interior design by Mark Whiteley Design, of Lymington, U.K.

The build uses a wood-composite construction technique, which combines an engineered blend of cold-molded wood, carbon fiber, a type of fiberglass called “E-glass” and foam coring. 

Rhode Island firm MCM Newport led the project on behalf of Ouzel’s owners.

Photo / Courtesy Billy Black
The build uses a wood-composite construction technique.

A yacht like Ouzel would most often be built in Europe, and likely from aluminum or possibly composite, Sam Temple, Rockport Marine’s president, told Mainebiz earlier this year. 

Temple added, “This is our bid to compete in that space.”

Ouzel’s owners bucked the trend and built the yacht on U.S. shores rather than in Europe.

“I think there’s a sort of common perception that you can’t build a boat like this in the United States any longer and I think that when the world sees what we are creating here, they’ll realize you can build a world-class superyacht that stands shoulder to shoulder with the European boats if not even higher right here in Rockport Marine in Rockport, Maine,” said Peter Wilson, president of MCM Newport.

The project began in late 2021 when MCM Newport approached Langan Design Partners for the design. Rockport Marine started construction in August 2023.

The owners are experienced boaters whose previous yacht was a 64-footer from a high-end builder in Finland called Baltic Yachts.

They will use Ouzel, which was designed to their specifications, for an extensive remote cruising itinerary.

Photo / Courtesy Billy Black
From left, Peter Wilson with MCM Newport; Tom Degrémont of Langan Design; Mark Whiteley of Mark Whiteley Design; Sam Temple with Rockport Marine.

Founded in 1962, Rockport Marine specializes in custom wooden boat construction, restoration and design. Powered by a 60-strong crew, the yard stores and maintains a fleet of classic wooden boats and usually has some large restorations and/or new builds in progress. Going into this winter, the yard has a restoration in the shop and several potential new and refit projects. 

Rockport Marine previously worked with Langan Design on the construction of Spirit of Bermuda, a 112-foot, three-masted schooner based on an early-19th-century style and launched in 2006.

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