Yellow Tow Boat Portland ME

A yellow Sea Tow boat rests at Maine Wharf, off Commercial Street on Portland’s working waterfront, its bright collar the first place the eye lands. The white cabin carries the name again, a red life ring lies on the roof, and a small American flag flies at the mast. All around are pilings, lines and reflections: a sailboat moored behind, a red-hulled cruiser beyond, the water a cool slate.

Sea Tow began in September 1983, when Captain Joseph Frohnhoefer Jr. set out to help boaters who had run aground, run out of fuel or simply broken down, just as the U.S. Coast Guard stepped back from non-emergency calls. The company grew to more than a hundred locations.

In 2010 it trademarked yellow hulls for its line of work, which is why one of these is so easy to pick out across a crowded harbor.

On a gray day by the docks, the brightest spot in the picture is the very vessel a stranded sailor most hopes to see.