Wiscasset’s harbor master boat is out of the water and up on blocks at North End Lobster Co-Op on Westport Island while the cost to fix a hole in the wet exhaust is being determined, Harbor Master Preston Dunning said Monday.

He has been contacting businesses to get estimates, with one coming in at $9,500, Dunning said. But he thinks the numbers he’s heard so far might be a little on the high side for what’s needed, so he’s having the town mechanic take a look, he said.

Town Manager Marian Anderson said that when Dunning gets her the estimated repair costs, she’ll present them to selectmen in open session. The harbor budget has $2,500 in the repair line, so if the fix takes more than that, the board would need to consider its options for funding the work, she said.

At the same time, she would expect the board to look toward how it will approach the boat’s future needs, Anderson said.

“I think we need to look at the whole picture,” such as possibly putting a new maintenance plan in place, she said.

Dunning isn’t sure how or when the hole got there. In Monday’s phone interview and in emails, he said he had it out on the harbor near Edgecomb recently when he saw it was taking on water. He got it back to the commercial pier; then a Maine Marine Patrol officer who was at the waterfront helped Dunning locate the leak. A local lobsterman towed it to Westport Island, Dunning said.

Wiscasset is paying $750 to keep the boat at the co-op through the end of May, he said. It’s up on blocks, he said.

Dunning is a past boat owner but not a current one. He has access to family members’ and other people’s boats if needed, and local fishermen are very good about helping other boaters having a problem on the water, he added.

Harbor masters in many towns use their own boats and the towns pay for those costs, Dunning said. But he is hoping Wiscasset will fix its boat.

“The town boat is worth repairing as it is in good shape structurally. It has had a lack of TLC over the years but it does run well and is a definite sea worthy craft that is designed for the job for which it is being used,” Dunning writes in an email. “I think that not repairing it should not be the answer as the boat has more than paid for itself over the years that we have had it.

“The question should be how are we going to get it repaired for the least possible cost.”