About Us -
How Hilmark Boats Inc came to be...

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Hilford Burton, boat builder and President of Hilmark Boats Inc was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1941. After the Halifax explosion of the 2nd World War, his family moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. By the age of 18 Hilford started his flying training at the RCFCA Brampton Flying Club. With a fresh commercial pilot license in his pocket and his bride at his side, a honeymoon to Northern Ontario resulted in 43 years and 22,000 hrs. logged as a Canadian Bush Pilot.

His flying criss-crossed Canada including the North Atlantic, Hudson’s Bay, the Arctic Ocean, and the Pacific Northwest. Thousands of water landings serving trappers, loggers, prospectors, fishing lodges and aboriginal families drew his attention to the type of boats, canoes and water craft used by these “peoples of the bush”

As wooden boats gave way to fiberglass and plastic copies of various hulls, one old style of wooden boat just kept going for years after it should have been retired. That design, built in the 1920s and still serving in some remote areas of Canada today, is a cedar planked, clinker built, lapstrake hull. Fastened with copper clench nails, square nails and copper roves, this solidly built boat will provide decades of service.

Attracted to the fine lines, ease of maintaining, and extremely long service life of this wooden boat, Hilford set about locating and putting into production this old, reliable clinker built design - and opened the doors of Hilmark Boats Inc.

Enjoy the web site and contact Hilford if owning a truly Canadian clinker built, lapstrake hull boat will make your dreams come true!

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