About Us

Peinert Boat Works was founded in 1976 in Bennington, Vermont and has been located in Southeastern Massachusetts since 1983. The current shop is in Mattapoisett, where most of the New Bedford whaling ships were built. Peinert Boat Works attempts to build superior products and to ensure the customer's satisfaction with the products and the company. Peinert Boat Works is committed to using the best materials in every boat it makes, and to produce competitive boats that are comfortable and easy to row. The boats have the feel, speed, and light weight of an elite boat while being inexpensive and extremely durable.

The founder John Peinert began by making a hull as a favor for a friend. He had rowed at Williams College and was the Head coach there from 1978-1982. After his first boats he researched hull shapes extensively and developed a unique hull shape, the basis for current models. From 1976 to 1987 Peinert Boat Works produced Elite singles and recreational shells. The Peinert 26 was introduced in 1986. The Peinert X25, or Lightweight Boat, was first produced in 1990. The open water racer, the Dolphin, was first offered in 1996 and the recreational/open water Zephyr in 2002. We refined the shapes of the racing boats and changed to bow riggers in 2019 and 2020. The ultralight carbon rigger debuted in 2024. Paul Milde rowed on the Harvard Lightweight crew, on various lightweight club and development crews, and continues to row as a Master's rower. He has been the owner and head boat builder since 1997.

Over almost 50 years, Peinert has developed efficient techniques for building relatively inexpensive but durable single rowing shells. Competitors are unable to match the combination of durability, weight, performance, and moderate price. All boats include a Kevlar layer in the hull and deck for durability and full length I-beam frame for superior stiffness. The narrower boats are 70% Carbon/30% woven Kevlar single-skin construction with honeycomb core Kevlar frame. The Zephyr has syntactic-cored skin in unidirectional fiberglass and Carbon and a foam core Kevlar frame. All boats are rigged to the customer's height and weight and are delivered setup and ready to row. They do not come off an assembly line. Each boat builder builds a boat from start to finish with the specific customer in mind. Paul rigs each boat himself. We do our best job on every boat.