01907 Winter 2022

10 | 01907
The seaworthy life
of Arne Heitmann
BY EMMA FRINGUELLI
PHOTOS BY SPENSER HASAK
You wouldn’t know that 97-year-old
Arne Heitmann is a completely selftaught
shipwright, especially not when
you see the 34-foot-long powerboat he is
building in his side yard.
Over the past 81 years, Heitmann has
been mastering his craft, one he began
teaching himself at the age of 16. It was
then that he launched his first boat onto
the water — or into the water, rather, as a
missing pin caused the boat to sink.
Once he got the water out and the pin
in, Heitmann’s boat caught the attention
of the Weymouth Yacht Club, whose
members gave him a free membership.
He has continued to stun people with
his creations in the eight decades since.
Heitmann’s boats are all original designs,
straight from his imagination. After
spending time in the Navy and working as
a jet engine engineer at General Electric,
it is the freedom to create something on
his own terms that helps him relax. He
considers what he wants in a boat and
then he makes it — answering to no one
but himself.
“You think: what do you want to
accomplish with the boat? What sleeping
accommodations do you need? Where do
you put the propulsion engines? Those
things, you add them up, and it develops
the boat design…. The fact that I can
create something from scratch — that
creativity is what I enjoy. Nothing more
than that.”
Even if they are “selfish” pursuits, as
Heitmann put it, the designs have captivated
people around Swampscott for years.
Susan Heitmann, Arne’s daughter-inlaw,
recalled hearing stories of the entire
neighborhood gathering at his house to
watch his boats leave for the harbor.
She said strangers would come up to
the family while they were out on Cape
Cod with the boats and ask about the
builder, remarking how impressive his
boats were. But Heitmann doesn’t care
what people think, compliments or not.
“It’s something that satisfies me, I don’t
worry about other people. I just enjoy the
process…. I don’t try to impress anybody.
It’s very selfish, I just want to please
myself.”
At 97-years-old, Heitmann says he
builds boats for the thrill of launching
them into the harbor, nothing more, nothing
less. It is the satisfaction of creating
something and watching it work just as
intended that makes all the labor worthwhile.
“When the boat gets launched and
it floats, that’s the most exciting part of it.
Very exciting.”
When Heitmann’s five children were
young kids, they used to help him out
with the building, but they have since
moved on from helping their father build
boats in their backyard, and his wife has
passed away, but good memories still persist.
He recalled an example of the support
his wife, Cill — even in the less glamorous
part of boat-building.
“She did quite a bit! My wife was a
great supporter of the things I did. When
we would, for example, do some resin
work, she would be down in the hull,
slopping resin with me. And that’s not
something a female likes to do, but she
did.”
Though boat-building is not the family’s
forte, enjoying the boats Heitmann
makes out onto the water is. Heitmann
BUILDER, continued on page 14