In the past, each seaport on the islands and coastal areas of the mainland had its own boatyard in which large sailing ships and smaller wooden boats were built to serve the maritime activities of the seafarers (such as trade, fishing, sponge fishing, and communications).

Today there are few wooden boatyards left and they usually have a limited work to do, because many of these maritime activities have been abandoned and others are done in different ways. The remaining boatyards continue centuries-old traditions; and often visitors to the "birthplace" of wooden boats have the feeling of the "aura" of an older era, which emerges through the smells of wood, the sounds of tools, the shades of the red lead, and the shapes of many curved moulds on the walls of the workshops.