TowBoatUS opens two new ports in Maine’s Casco Bay

Casco Bay boaters picked up two new pieces of safety gear on the water as Capt. Parker Poole opened TowBoatUS Harpswell and TowBoatUS Portland, adding a local towing presence built for the kind of breakdowns that can turn a good day short fast. BoatUS said the new operation will serve recreational boaters throughout the bay with towing, fuel delivery, jump-starts and soft-ungrounding support, the sort of help that can keep a minor problem from becoming a cold-water headache.

The expansion gives Poole two TowBoatUS ports in the same working and cruising water where he grew up. Born and raised in Falmouth, Poole came up around fishing, sailing and marine construction, then spent about 10 years building an independent vessel towing and salvage company before bringing that experience under the TowBoatUS umbrella. BoatUS said six towing response vessels, ranging from 17 to 44 feet, will be ready to respond, with Coast Guard-licensed captains covering near-shore, offshore and lake assistance. For sailors threading Harpswell Harbor, Mackerel Cove and the rest of Casco Bay, that local reach matters as much as horsepower.

The network behind those two Maine ports is much larger. BoatUS said its towing fleet now spans more than 330 locations and more than 630 red towboats nationwide, answering more than 110,000 requests for assistance each year. In Maine alone, BoatUS said it has more than 4,000 members. That scale changes the way many boat owners think about a day on the water: a capable DIY skipper can often solve a dead battery, a low-fuel scare or a simple soft grounding with the right tools and judgment, but expanded towing coverage changes the risk calculation when the fix needs a prop clear, a tow home or an assist in a narrow channel with weather building.

The timing also fits the way Casco Bay is used. A Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife rule requires people born on or after January 1, 1999 to complete a boater safety and education course for certain motorboat and personal watercraft operation, a reminder that the state already treats on-water competence as a baseline. The bay itself carries real economic weight: one Casco Bay study found tourism and recreation accounted for 80 percent of ocean-economy employment, while another said the bay supported about 18,500 jobs and $704 million in direct economic activity. In a place that busy, a towboat on call is not a luxury. It is part of passage planning, maintenance priorities and the decision to make one more attempt at a fix or call for help before the tide, the wind or the shoals make the choice for you.