It’s no wonder that Beaufort and boat building is a match. Carteret County, in which Beaufort is the county seat, contains 821 square miles of water and only 520 square miles of land. For a long time the best, and often the only, way to get around was by boat, plus catching fish and shellfish from a boat was the best and most delicious way to have something good to eat. If boats were necessities of life and livelihood in Carteret County, why not build them here? Local live oak, juniper, and pine became boat building lumbers of choice. At first, builders used their backyards to do their boatbuilding. (some still do) In the late 1860’s, boat building became a business, and soon the county became the boat building center of North Carolina. Initially, the boats were mainly work boats for fishing, oystering, and the like, but in time, the focus shifted to pleasure boats, which is where we are today. The hotbed of boat building was originally in Down East locales like Marshallberg and Harkers Island. These places are still cranking out the traditional wooden boats as well as their fiberglass cousins, but much of the higher tech and high output establishments have shifted to Beaufort and Morehead City. In all, the latest count shows twenty eight boat building businesses in the county along with many more marinas, marine products and services establishments. That’s why it’s a natural to have a National Boatbuilding Challenge in Beaufort. Beaufort builders can mix it up with the best of them.