Quick Answer Harris Boat Works is a Mercury Marine Premier Dealer in Gores Landing on Rice Lake, about 35 minutes south of Peterborough via Highway 28. We handle Mercury outboard sales, repowers, parts, and service. Installed pricing is published online at mercuryrepower.ca,...
Quick Answer
Harris Boat Works is a Mercury Marine Premier Dealer in Gores Landing on Rice Lake, about 35 minutes south of Peterborough via Highway 28. We handle Mercury outboard sales, repowers, parts, and service. Installed pricing is published online at mercuryrepower.ca, so you can build a quote before you make the drive.
See why boaters across Ontario choose Harris Boat Works for the full breakdown of our approach.
The short answer for Peterborough boaters
If you're searching for the best Mercury dealer near Peterborough, here's the honest version: there are several dealers in the area, and "best" depends on what you need. What Harris Boat Works offers that's hard to find elsewhere: Mercury Premier Dealer status, real prices published online in our quote configurator (no "call for price"), and water testing on Rice Lake before you take delivery. We're about 35 minutes south of Peterborough via Highway 28 in Gores Landing, on Rice Lake's south shore. Plenty of Peterborough boaters drive past closer options for those things.
Peterborough boaters don't need to commute to the GTA for a Mercury dealer
Most Peterborough boating questions get answered with a drive south through Lakefield or a drive west into the Kawarthas. The Mercury dealer math is a third option that a lot of Peterborough customers don't think about until they need a real conversation about a repower: HBW is 35 minutes south on Highway 28, and the route avoids any of the GTA congestion that makes a Mississauga or Burlington dealer a four-hour round trip.
For Peterborough customers, the conversation we have most often is "I've been driving to Toronto for warranty work and it's becoming impractical." Same warranty network. Closer dealer. Easier scheduling.
What Peterborough boaters typically use HBW for
The pattern we see from Peterborough regulars looks like this:
- Spring commissioning, they drop off in April, pick up in May with the motor commissioned, tested, and ready for the Otonabee
- Mid-season service, an impeller, a fuel issue, a SmartCraft fault that needs a Mercury Premier diagnostic
- Repower decisions, when the old motor is past mid-life and the math starts looking ugly, we walk through repower vs new boat vs sell with real numbers
- Fall winterization + storage, boat stays with us through the off-season, gets full winterization, picks back up at spring launch
- Trade-in conversations, the Trade-In Value Guide at mercuryrepower.ca gives a starting number; we close the actual valuation in person
The Peterborough boaters who use us most don't come for the sale. They come because once you have a service relationship with a Mercury Premier shop on Rice Lake, the rest of the year gets simpler.
Why Peterborough customers drive past closer shops
Peterborough has marinas. Peterborough has general boat shops. What it has less of is Mercury Premier dealer depth with full repower capacity.
Premier is Mercury's top dealer tier, it reflects parts inventory depth, technical training hours, warranty authorization, and SmartCraft diagnostic equipment. For routine work (oil changes, props, basic seasonal service) any qualified Mercury dealer is fine. For a full repower or a hard warranty case, Premier-tier resolution paths matter.
The other reason: live online pricing. Most Mercury dealers, including most in the Peterborough area, require a phone call to get a quote. Our quote builder at mercuryrepower.ca shows real installed CAD pricing, motor, rigging, controls, prop, install labour, HST, in about three minutes. You see the number before you make the call. That alone is worth a 35-minute drive for most informed buyers. For Mercury prices from 2.5 to 300 HP on one page, see our published price reference.
Getting to Harris Boat Works from Peterborough
Route: Highway 28 South through Lakefield, then County Road 9 east toward Gores Landing, then County Road 18 into the marina. Mostly highway and rural county road. Last 10 minutes is scenic Rice Lake country.
Approximate drive time: 35 minutes outside rush hour. From east Peterborough (around Trent University), shave 5 minutes. From west Peterborough (toward Lakefield), the drive is slightly longer but still under 40 minutes.
Address: 5369 Harris Boat Works Rd, Gores Landing, ON K0K 2E0
Phone: 905-342-2153
Service requests: hbw.wiki/service
Motor pricing: mercuryrepower.ca
What HBW handles for Peterborough customers
Mercury outboard sales
Full Mercury lineup: 2.5 HP portables through 600 HP Verado (Verado is special-order, most Peterborough/Kawartha boats need FourStroke or Pro XS). Honest conversation about what fits your boat and your use case on the Otonabee, Trent system, or Kawartha lakes.
Repower service
Full job: motor, rigging, controls, throttle and shift cables, prop selection, installation, and documented acceptance checks before pickup. When safe seasonal conditions allow, the work order can include an on-water check on Rice Lake; otherwise, HBW documents the alternate acceptance plan with the customer. HBW is pickup-only and does not deliver boats or motors.
Mercury parts and service
Premier-tier parts depth and warranty authorization. SmartCraft diagnostics, full service for current and recent Mercury outboards. For engine repairs, we only service Mercury and MerCruiser.
Winter storage
Outdoor winter storage with shrinkwrap. We don't offer indoor, heated, climate-controlled, summer, or year-round storage. For Peterborough customers who boat on Rice Lake, the Otonabee, or anywhere in the Trent-Severn system, keeping the boat at HBW through winter leaves it close to Rice Lake when we reopen in early April.
Live installed pricing online
mercuryrepower.ca, real Canadian dollars, full configuration. Build a quote before you leave Peterborough.
The Peterborough customer profile we see most often
Peterborough boaters tend to know boats. The city has a deep boating culture, Trent University boaters, Otonabee day-cruisers, Kawartha cottagers, and a strong fishing community on the Kawartha chain. The call-for-quote runaround frustrates Peterborough buyers more than most because they've usually already done their research before they make the call.
Our quote builder skips the call-for-a-starting-price step and shows the current configuration in Canadian dollars. The boat-specific written quote controls the final motor, rigging, labour, tax, trade-in, and financing figures. HBW has built this business on returning customers and referrals, not quota-driven sales tactics.
What we see at HBW
The most common Peterborough question we get isn't about a specific motor, it's "is repower worth it on my hull?" The honest answer depends on three things: the age of the hull, the cost of the motor proposed, and how many seasons you want out of the package. Our Repower vs Buy New decision guide covers the math; the short answer is that for hulls under 15 years old in good structural shape, repower beats new-boat economics in most cases.
For Peterborough customers, continuity can be useful: the installing dealer can retain the rigging and service history if the owner returns for booked maintenance. Mercury controls warranty coverage and claim decisions, so no article should promise a faster approval or outcome.
How to make the drive worth it
Build your quote at mercuryrepower.ca first. Takes about three minutes. You'll see real installed pricing for the motor and rigging options you're considering.
If you have a specific service issue, submit a request at hbw.wiki/service. That's how 90% of our service intake starts, faster than a phone call, and it routes directly to the right person.
For a motor purchase conversation, call ahead: 905-342-2153. We'll have someone ready when you arrive.
Start from home: build your itemized Mercury quote at mercuryrepower.ca/quote/motor-selection, then pick up at Gores Landing.
