Tag Archives: Downeast boatbuilding icons

Bunker and Ellis: How two men played pool and became boatbuilding icons

“We worked nights, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, even Christmas,” Raymond Bunker said in 1979, not long after his 32-year partnership with Ralph Ellis ended. “Often, we worked until nine o’clock or midnight, just the two of us, and we sometimes built four boats in a winter.”Bunker and Ellis were in their 30s when they teamed up in 1946 to build boats. Before that, both men had developed reputations around the waterfront as hardworking, knowledgeable men. Ellis was a fisherman who helped run a commercial wharf. Bunker was the head foreman of a large boatyard, and ran private yachts during the summer. more@bdnprofilesmaine  21:07