This is a South Shore 42, which is being finished out as a tuna boat for a customer from Montauk, New York at AR Kennedy in Steuben.
The 47-foot Downeast cruiser under construction at Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin is really taking shape.
A. R. Kennedy, Steuben, ME
The big project this winter has been finishing out a South Shore 42 as a tuna boat for a customer from Montauk, NY. The owner basically will be living on board and the fish he catches will be sold to New York restaurants.
For accommodations, this boat has a full captain’s quarters to starboard, a full head with separate shower to port and a crew’s quarters with two berths, upper and lower in the bow. On the starboard side forward is a place to store a number of rods and reels. Up in the main salon there is a galley, with a microwave and refrigerator; four pull out drawers to starboard; a settee with dining table, a day berth to starboard and two helm seats. Out in the cockpit there is a live-well, tuna coffin, 80 gallons of water and 720 gallons of fuel.
She will also have a 10,000-watt generator, two air conditioning units, one down below and the other up in the shelter; a surveillance system, forward looking infrared, satellite TV and Starlink.
This is a high-end build where everything will be Awlgripped with a small amount of wood trim. Roger is not a fan of wood trim, but he has an employee who loves wood trim. There will also be a 2-inch drop ceiling and all the pieces in that will be a nice hardwood with a good finish that does not have to be maintained. The fiberglass hatches are custom with drain gutters and finished flush to the deck.
If you are wondering how well the finish is underneath the washboards it is absolutely smooth as well as under the toe kicks. This took almost two months to make perfectly smooth. Roger Kennedy, owner of the shop, explained, “When we agreed to do this project it was all going to be gelcoat. Well, I can do a gelcoat finish 10 times quicker than we can do all this for Awlgrip, because Awlgrip shows everything. It has to be perfect.”
Roger added, “It is going to be something when were done and I will be super happy when it’s done. I don’t want to do another, but I’ll probably will because I don’t know any better. It’s a lot more fun to do a quick lobster boat like that 42 Mussel Ridge we did last year.”
In the next bay over they have a Young Brothers 42 lobster boat in for her 20-year upgrade. When she was built, they used to put the centre bearing in because they used inside and outside boxes. The centre bearing had come loose and hollowed out the inside of the keel. They have rebuilt the keel and Roger’s brother B redid the hauler. They then just did her regular annual maintenance,
Before the Young Brothers 42 they had JANICE ELAINE, a Northern Bay 38 lobster boat, in for a major upgrade. Roger said, “We redid the floor in Philly-clad, re-gelcoated under the washboards, outside of the wheelhouse and just gave her a spruce-up. She is 19.”
Roger and his son Lance have been finishing off a Wayne Beal 36 as a split wheelhouse lobster boat for Lance on weekends. They have added a set of chines and Roger said that it took a lot of work to make them look right. To do that he cut them so that they could curve them up. Another change came when they cut the windshield and converted it from four to three windows. He added, “I love three windows, but mostly I did it because if you stand right at the helm your visibility is perfect with a split wheelhouse. You don’t see anything in the way. Plus, I like three windows because they give you that lower squatted look with wider than tall windows. Kind of looks like a 1950s Merc. chopped.”
For accommodations she can sleep two comfortably down below with a big settee, a place to store tuna fishing rods and a galley that will contain a microwave. She will also be fitted with a full rope locker for trawls and a tailgate.
This boat will be powered with a 505-cu. in. 350-hp Cummins. “She will not be the fastest, but this is his first official boat and so long as he can get from A to B, that is good,” said Roger. “I am sure he is going to play at the races, but it isn’t going to be a 40-mph boat. His budget wasn’t at 40 mph, but she will go good.”
Eaton’s Boat Shop, Deer Isle, ME
In the shop the last two winters has been a JC 31, which came in as a relatively simple upgrade, but that has become a little bit more complicated. She came in last year and they opened her up to see just what they were dealing with. When they got her opened up, they realized this was going to be a bigger project then they first thought, basically they have taken a 40-year-old boat and made a new boat out of it.
She had been a twin engined boat, but that has been changed to a single engine, by plugging all the holes, grinding down the inside and outside of the hull and reglassing, adding a full keel, new fuel tanks, bow thruster, a new 550-hp Yanmar with a 2:1 Twin Disc gear, and all the running gear (shaft log, shaft and boxes). Down below her accommodations will include a head, a hydraulic room, and a small V-berth.
To create the centre-console, Jeff Eaton, owner of the boat shop, said “This boat was going to be just one level all the way forward, nothing down in the bow, with just an engine box that you could move out of the way, and a steering helm with a four-post stainless steel top. Then the owner went down to the Keys and saw a boat that he liked and took some pictures of it and said, ‘This is what I want now.’”
When asked about the centre-console, Jeff explained, “To be honest with you, I made this with four tires off my truck. I took two threaded rods and bolted all my snow tires together and laid up a thin layer of hard glass. I placed it right around the tires and fastened it on each side and then glassed over it. Once it cured it held the shape and I popped it off. It came out pretty good. I am happy with it. It looks like an old Studebaker when you stand back and look at it.”
Down the sides are the washboards and they are made of Coosa, which will have two or three rod holders on each side. They also made sure that the height of the rail was above the knee making it safer to fish from. They will also put a coaming on the inside and a guard on the outside.
Up on the bow Jeff thinks he would like to put a windlass on the bow for hauling the anchor and find a stainless-steel bracket so the anchor can be hauled up right over the stem.
Presently they were glassing in some cubbyholes around the cockpit and Jeff was fairing the inside of the hull. Then they will add some knees to strengthen the washboards.
This project will take them right into the spring and they are thinking that she will not be done when they need to be ready for lobstering. Jeff was hoping to get it far enough along that he could ship it over to Long Cove Marine to get the wiring and mechanical items completed.
The owner arrives on Deer Isle around the first of spring and leaves mid-fall and then heads to Florida and they hope to have her done so she can go south.
So, if the JC 31 is not finished that will be the first project they tackle next year. Then Jeff’s brother-in-law, who has a Mitchell Cove 20, needs a new top. They patched it up, but it really needs to be replaced. The owner of a Calvin Beal 36 is looking to have some work done. The work includes adding a visor, putting down a rubber floor in the cockpit and some other minor upgrades. Jeff’s boat needs some work on his fiberglass rudder done. She shows wear and the last time he grounded out the rudder box was leaking and that needs to be removed and rebedded. Then there is the usual annual maintenance. He is hoping that there will be several minor projects next year and not one huge project as he would like to fit in a trip south with his wife and the dogs.
John’s Bay Boat Co., South Bristol, ME
The 38-foot lobster boat SUSAN JANE, built by John’s Bay Boat back in the late 1990s, came in the middle of November and has been undergoing a major transformation. She is going from a work boat to a pleasure cruiser. As soon as she was in the shop last November, they began by removing the shelter and her 3116 Caterpillar diesel engine. She is now repowered with 6.7-liter Cummins, which has been moved back behind the bulkhead, which meant they had to shorten the shaft. They also had to replace some of the main bulkhead. The shelter is currently being replaced and has been made longer so as to house a helm seat, galley, and settee. This has all been roughed in and now just needs the final finish pieces added. They have done some work on the accommodations, but the owner’s plan is to finish that next year.
With all the big work done they feel good about getting to a point that they can launch her later this spring and her owners can enjoy her during the summer and bring her back to have the rest completed next fall.
As soon as she is in the water, they will begin their railway work, which will keep them busy from spring to fall.
Peter Kass’ personal boat is coming right along. She is a 34-foot pleasure boat, which he and his wife will enjoy cruising the coast of Maine. The hull is done and painted, the deck and trunk is complete and he is now working on her interior. Peter had also just learned that his gear was in and that he could pick it and the engine, also a 6.7-liter Cummins, up anytime. Peter said she will not be done this year, but definitely the following year.
J. D.’s Marine Fabrication, Yarmouth, ME
Jake Dugas, whose father owns Royal River Boat Yard in Yarmouth, has left their employment to open his own fabrication business at the yard. He officially opened up in October and has been getting busier and busier and is now booked out through mid-summer.
Jake started welding in vocational school through his high school. He then went to work for D & G Machine for a brief time in 2013-2014. He left there and went to work at Cumberland Iron Works for about six years before returning to the boat yard for several years. His love was with fabricating and that is the reason he opened his own shop.
He has the ability to work with steel, stainless steel, and aluminum welding either at the shop or on the road. He recently completed a stern extension on a Wayne Beal 36 lobster boat in Harpswell; adding a tailgate on a Calvin Beal 44, which is now in Gloucester scalloping and is now working on a rudder that needed some changes made to it. Next, he will be building a trap rack. This will be followed by a lobster tank, a radar mast, and some aluminum benches.
Jake also said that he has not given up on doing boat repair, which he would do if the project is interesting.
Little River Boat Shop, Cutler, ME
Presently in the shop they have the Wesmac Superwide 46 lobster boat BOTTOM LINE from Corea. They pulled the propeller shaft and put a new stern cutlass bearing in the shaft tube and added new rubber isolators underneath the engine. To pull the propeller shaft they had to remove the rudder. Some of the hatches were leaking and they redid them. They buffed and waxed the hull, added new trim tabs, and then did her annual maintenance. She will be back in the water the second week of April. What impressed me on this boat was the metal fabrication, mainly the quarter guards, which were made by Nautilus Marine in Trenton. They had taken a 3-inch shaft and split it on the waterjet. They then welded bolts to the inner side and bolted it on. These will never fail protecting the hull.
Just before this an Osmond 40 from Cutler was in for some modifications. Another Osmond 40 had gone ashore in Jonesport and this boat was destroyed, but the five-foot hull extension was not damaged. The owner of the wrecked boat sold the extension, and this was added to the Osmond 40 from Cutler, minus about a foot. Getting everything to line up was a challenge, but after a lot of manipulation they had were just the way they wanted. What they did was elevate the extension up two inches. Nick Lemieux added, “We didn’t want to drive the bow down. I believe that originally this was a 38 and they added two feet at H & H and made the 40 mould. The rudder and propeller is ahead a decent amount, so, when you get that much more stuck out over the back it could cause a problem.”
To make sure everything was strong enough they tore up some of the floor and added bulkheads to tie everything together. They then sprayed the hull, new gelcoat on the roof and trunk and repainted the cabin. They built a new aluminum stern extension, added rubber isolators underneath the motor, and put in a new R. E. Thomas inside box.
This boat arrived the second week of January and was back in the water the end of March.
Next in will be OBSESSION [Young Brothers 40], which is coming in for her annual maintenance and electronics work.
She will be followed by a Dixon 45, which had been recently redone by Rich’s Boat Yard in West Tremont. She is in to have a rope locker added, put a winch on the davit and then she will be put up for sale.
With all the scheduled work done the crew will be ready for the fishing season.
