When the massive fire on Custom House Wharf in December destroyed Nanuq Kayaks, friends and fellow paddling enthusiasts told owner Harley Lewin they would help him move boats and gear out of the rubble.

There was barely anything left to carry.

“What happened was a catastrophe,” Lewin said. “You have insurance, but insurance doesn’t come anywhere near covering what you need. You think, ‘I’ll get scissors and a piece of tape. Wait a minute. We lost the scissors in the fire.'”

On Wednesday, Lewin stood on the cement floor of 200 Anderson St. in Portland, the new home of his business in East Bayside. The shop reopened there last month. Near one wall, three kayaks sat with ash in their hulls. The industrial space is different from the shop’s former home on the wharf, where wood-paneled walls and sleek boats lent a clubhouse feel, he said, but he’s glad to be there.

Lewin, 81, considered not reopening the business. He recalled the below-freezing night of Dec. 26, when he got a call that the buildings on the wharf were ablaze. He rushed downtown and found towering flames.

“I didn’t even feel a sense of loss at that moment, right?” he said. “You go numb.”

The fire left four businesses and several fishing boats damaged or destroyed. Lewin said he lost 10 boats that sell for at least $5,000 each, thousands of dollars worth of handmade paddles from Estonia and Taiwan, treasured paintings and artifacts from international travels. He had been selling high-end kayaks and paddling gear in the Old Port since 2019, when he left a decades-long law career in Manhattan and chased a dream to Maine.

Nanuq Kayaks, he said, has always been part law office, part kayaking store, part hangout. Lewin said he tried to create a place where people didn’t feel pressure to buy.

Jordi St. John, business engagement manager at the Maine Island Trail Association, said Lewin is always ready to “geek out” about kayaks.

“You could tell that for him, this is all about the passion of getting out and boating,” St. John said.

Lewin said he had hopes of reopening on the wharf, but started to realize that he couldn’t wait for the construction and also wouldn’t feel comfortable on the site of the fire. He put out a call to friends on social media and sent emails to business contacts, and St. John said he helped Lewin connect with the agent who found the new spot.

Lewin said he likes being in the midst of breweries and galleries and street art. He vowed that he would never move into cookie-cutter new construction.

“I did have to tear myself away from the emotional drag of the water,” Lewin said.

The new space is mostly empty right now. Lewin has seven boats on the way from Rockpool in Wales, where he gets all of his kayaks, and hopes they will be there by this month. He placed that order in September, weeks before the fire. He’s also slowly restocking other items, navigating long lead times and new tariffs.

On Wednesday, Lewin was expecting a shipment of wooden paddles. Next to his desk, a cardboard box overflowed with new safety gear. The phone rang with a customer asking about rentals. Lewin doesn’t offer that option but is used to the question, so he directed the caller to other local options.

Lewin has always repaired kayaks, but that aspect of his business was picking up before the fire. He said the larger space on Anderson Street will allow him to expand that work, and this week, he was fixing the bumper on one end of a canoe and replacing the foot pedals on a kayak. He’s also making cosmetic repairs to the kayaks that survived the fire; he pointed out the small blisters on the side of a long yellow boat. He’ll sell those at a discount, he said.

Lewin’s own kayak, blue with yellow stars, sat in the new shop, as well. He went out once over the winter but found that he wasn’t ready to get back on the water. It went back to storage.

“Only now am I in a place where I feel like, ‘What a nice, warm day. I want to put the boat in the water,’ ” he said.

A sign on the front door says Nanuq Kayaks is open Wednesday through Sunday from “10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ish.” If you find a “Gone Paddling” note, Lewin said, just come back later.