Hauled up on the ways at John’s Bay Boat Company is one of the lobster boats they built from southern Maine in for a fresh coat of paint.
The 8-foot three-masted schooner model at Jerome Morris’ shop in Union. She is in to have her starboard side completed and then rigged.
Brooklin Boat Yard, Brooklin
The 47-foot Downeast cruiser, designed in-house by Will Sturdy, has been launched. She has been out on sea trials and with a borrowed propeller she went 35 knots and they are hoping with the new Michigan wheel they will get a couple of more knots.
Eric Blake, said, “She is not a boat that you can buy on the market. She is a big 47-footer for a couple with a generous aft cockpit. The pilothouse door and wheelhouse window aft slide into pockets to create kind of an open-air salon indoor/outdoor space. Down below is a galley that is cathedral to the pilothouse on the portside and then there is a settee/dining salon to starboard going forward. She has got a day head and the owner’s head with a big double berth forward. It is a boat that you can entertain a crowd on, take the grandkids out for the day but the only one sleeping on board is mom and dad.”
The interior is finished in the Herreshoff style with cherry trim. The cabin sole is vertical grain Douglas fir. The upholstery was done by So Rugged in Penobscot.
This was a multi-year project for the owner. She is a very simple, straight forward boat and the owner is extremely happy with her.
If you are interested and want to see her, she will be at the Newport International Boat Show this September. Also at the Newport show will be a Botin racing sailboat, which goes to the other end of the spectrum.
Just before the launch of the Downeast 47-foot powerboat they launched the new Eggemoggin 47 they were also building in the main shop last winter. Eric said, “For all intents and purposes she is a new design of Will’s. She is 18-inches beamier than the previous five. We built a boat called HARPER for this owner two seasons ago and they sailed her hard, and then came back to us and said, here are all the things we want to change. We basically cleaned up the lines and turned them into buttons and now there are 27 button functions in the cockpit that a person can singlehandedly control while the skipper drives. DYLAN has been delivered and is out on the Vineyard and they are having a great time with it.”
The 76-foot racing sailboat WILD HORSES is in the main shop. She was recently purchased by Steve White, former owner/president of Brooklin Boat Yard. She was designed by his father, Joel, but he never got to see the boat hit the water in 1998. Over the years she has been driven hard and put away wet and was in dire need of a facelift. They are also detuning her a bit. Eric added, “She had twin coffee grinders in the cockpit that we removed. We removed a lot of her symmetrical spinnaker racing gear. We also removed eight of eighteen winches from the deck. We are putting a furler boom in, which was a cast-off from SONNY III. When she was sold, she was sold to the owner of Southern Spars, Hall Spars and the North Group and they just pulled the brand-new rig out and shelved it and put one of theirs in. Steve ended up getting the boom and the staysail furler, which are a perfect fit for WILD HORSES. So, we are making more of a shorthanded day boat out of her. Something that four or five people can jump on and go for a day sail or power up to go racing if you want. But really, we are just pulling everything out of the bilges and giving her a fresh coat of paint and varnish, which she needs desperately.
Out in the yard they have been razing some of the old buildings. “The entire yard we are rearranging,” explained Eric. “We have got two of the six building on campus down. They were old metal buildings from the factory days. Also, old skid works are coming out of the ground. We are putting up a new three-bay facility to replace that and freeing up some yard space to stage, rig and prep boats for the tide. The whole yard is kind of a construction zone this summer, and we are hoping to have buildings up and moved in by Thanksgiving.”
PT boat #3 is coming back online. Her owner is extremely busy, owning several shipyards in the U.S., but also one in Finland. The design phase is just beginning. Eric added, “We basically designed a cradle, 3D scanned the boat and got it here. We are in an information gathering period coming up with previous owners who had a lot of stuff that is original to the boat. I was at the Battleship Cove Museum in Fall River (MA), and they gave me a great tour of their PT boats. They have two different PT Boats in their collection. It was very impressive. I think that the idea is to have this PT Boat as kind of a recruitment tool for employees. Take it to shows and get people interested in the trade and hopefully get them to come onboard and work for them.”
Other work they have got includes ISABELLE, which is a 74-foot cutter, that they have been maintaining over the last several winters. She is in for a teak deck. APHRODITE, which is a boat they restored 20 years ago, and she is due for a new teak deck and some cabin side repair. They have got a great job building a new house on a Ray Hunt design boat called KYROS. They put a new center line in her about four years ago. MAZURKA, an 80-foot Trumpy, will be in for one month worth of work this September. Earlier this summer she came in and they went through her systems. This fall they plan to put her in the shed and refasten her with monel.
Jerome Morris, Union, ME
One of my favourite places to stop to see what new projects are underway. The last time I was in Jerome’s shop he had just received a trireme, which had been in the movie “Ben Hur’ in 1925. Since then, he has put in a new deck and is making other pieces that were either broken or missing. Since this is a two-masted vessel he picked up some sail material so he can build the needed two sails. All the oars, 200 total, were missing or broken so Jerome has someone from outside the country building them. He is really hoping that they fit.
This is a difficult project, mainly due to the unknowns. The only resource for information as to certain questions Jerome has comes from viewing the movie, but that certainly does not answer everything. Over the 100-plus years she has been neglected and damaged. He has to smooth up the hull and try not to use too much filler in the process. The owner leaves some of the issues to Jerome discretion, but that does not mean that the decision is final. He feels that he has several more months of work to do before she is completed and out the door.
Also in the shop is an 8-foot 3-masted schooner named CALIFORNIAN from Los Angeles. She came in to have her starboard side finished and then rigged. Jerome explained, “The starboard side is not shaped. So, maybe it was mounted on a wall. The inner bulwarks on the portside are unfinished; there are no windows in the starboard of the houses and various other discrepancies. There is a big chunk about 3-feet long, 4 or 5 inches wide on the starboard side that is totally missing. It doesn’t look like it was ever there by the looks of the wood. I am going to finish off the starboard side to make it match the portside, like a full hull, and put the rig in it. Due to the height of it which will be about 75-inches tall, keel to truck, I realized I have got to be able to make the rig removable, which is not easy because of the size of it. There is a little bit of head scratching there. It has to go over the road to be delivered, and it is probably a lot easier to deliver it in a pickup truck as opposed to a box truck. The height is an issue as is the weight because the thing weighs I’ll bet 250 pounds. It is a handful for two people so because of that I want to be able to take the rig out of it so at least when they go to move it out of the truck into a building the rig can come out and you can actually get ahold of the model a little bit better. It is interesting that the name and hail as well as draft mark numbers on the bow are cast brass. That is very unusual. Somebody went to great lengths to make those letters.”
Jerome also noted that the foremast had at some point been broken and repaired. Unfortunately, the repair left the topmast leaning forward about an 1/8-inch. He is going to cut the mast below the repair and redo it, so it stands straight.
There is no question that this is a very unique model and one the new owner saved from being toss in a dumpster.
Also in the shop is a nice model of a Friendship sloop. Jerome said that she was scratch built with a solid hull. The hull he found very heavy and thinks it was made of maple and that if put in water would not float on her lines. She is in to be rigged and that should only take a few days to do.
There is a model of the clipper FLYING CLOUD that needs repairs to her headgear. Jerome thought it was built from a kit. Her owners were downsizing, and before they donated it to Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, they wanted the headgear repaired.
There was another sailing ship in for repairs with the name CAPELLA, Boston on her transom. The only sailing ship with ties to New England that had that name in my database was one built as a bark in Bristol, RI in 1857. This model at one time had a mouse living inside and at some point the bowsprit was replaced. That bowsprit needs to be removed as it is not to scale.
Next to her was a really nice pond model that was treenail fastened. She is in to be rigged.
There is a really small model based on the lines of a Revenue Cutter from the early 1800s. Jerome said that when he was cleaning the model he dropped a double block on the floor and it took him two hours to find it. This was still less time than it would take him to make a new one. He said, “The blocks are stroked and they are drilled out. I am using the smallest drill I have been able to acquire to drill those blocks out. Having a block that is only 3/32-inches long is a challenge. Everything I have got here is at least twice as big.”
Other projects include: a full model that came in that the owner wanted two half-hulls made from. The hull has been cut in half and Jerome needs to make rudders and a bowsprit for each of them. Another sailing ship came in to be re-rigged and when completed the owner came and picked it up. Three days later Jerome got a call that he had had a fainting spell and had dropped the model. All the rigging work that Jerome had done was broken as well as the bowsprit and foremast. A fairly old pond model came in for new rigging. Another pond model was of a two-masted schooner, which her owner wanted changed to a clipper ship. The next pond model is 54-inches in length named STARLIGHT of Cape Neddick and she needs repairs. Then there is a radio-controlled model of a 260-foot British deck cargo ship. Jerome is working with someone from Falmouth, which is also building one. Jerome had someone cut the frames and keel out of plywood and he has planked the hull.
Then up in the loft there are a number of models that have been given to Jerome and a couple Jerome started years ago but has yet to finish.
Then I asked what is the modeling market like. I had heard that there was a resurgence in modeling. Jerome said, “I have heard that. I suspect today’s youth are getting tired of all the screen time. You don’t really get anything out of it physically. As far as ship models there’s probably a few out there and every once in a while, I will run into somebody that has a slight interest in model building because they want to do something with their hands. As far as plastic models are concerned in the boat field, most of it is warships. It is something that they can take out of the box, cut the pieces off, glue it on and you have got a finished product. Something that you can actually physically hold. There are military figures that are 3-5 inches tall. There’re also buildings in various scales, which are fun because they glue together pretty quickly. Then there’s the model railroad aspect of kit building. There are some serious collectors in model railroads. A lot of them go to Cabin Fever Auction, which is online. There is also a ton of model railroad equipment out there dirt cheap. There are still collectors, some of them are younger, maybe it is from their grandfather or something like that. I haven’t seen an awful lot of model activity in this neck of the woods, but I do suspect there are spots where it is coming back. It will be interesting in the next 10 years because a lot of my clients are at least 10 years older than I am, so in the next 10 years they are going to be in their late 80s or early 90s. A lot of those models up in the loft came from widows, because they have no idea what to do with it and they don’t want to have to throw it away.”
Wesmac, Surry
The 57-foot split wheelhouse patrol vessel ALLEGIANCE was christened at Perry’s Lobster in Surry on 11 June for the Maine Marine Patrol. This boat was designed to make it safer for offshore patrols. The hull was laid up as a 55-footer with a two-foot stern extension over the water. Down below she has bunks, head, hanging locker and small galley. Up in the main salon is the helm and navigation station, as well as a refrigerator. For navigation she has a full suite of Furuno electronics. She is powered with a Tier 4 1,450-hp MAN Diesel, which will allow her to cruise at 20 knots. A concern when designing a boat for Tier 4 is the heat generated by the system. Wesmac doubled the air flow, and the designers of the DEF system made some modifications. Another issue is that the systems under the deck take up a lot of space, but they were able to make changes to minimize the issue. The deck space is large and will be able to handle a 15-foot Ribcraft Rigid hull inflatable. ALLEGIANCE will be stationed at Boothbay and will replace the 35-foot VIGILANT, which is almost 30 years old.
In the mould shop they are laying up a Superwide 46, which will be going out as a kit to be finished as a sportfish/lobster boat by a company on Cape Cod.
In Bay 1 they have a 46 multi species boat, powered with a 1,200-hp MAN, which will be going to Montauk, New York. In Bay 2 they have the Wesmac 18 skiff mould in, which they are laying one up in. In Bay 3 they have a 50-foot tuna boat underway. This one is powered with twin C-18 Caterpillars. Bay 4 is a staging area and Bay 5 has got a Superwide 46 being finished out as a tuna boat. She is powered with a 1,650-hp MAN. In Bay 6 they have a 50-foot tuna offshore charter boat powered with a 2,300-hp C-32B Caterpillar.
At the lower yard they have a Lowell 43 powered with a 3406 Caterpillar. She has a new owner and they have added chines, lifting strakes in an attempt to get her to lift out of the water more. They will also re-gelcoat the hull and house. There is a 50-foot lobster boat down there, which is being converted into a tuna boat. She is powered with a 2,000-hp C-32 Caterpillar.
SELECT, a 50-foot split wheelhouse tuna boat, went over mid-July. The owner had been using ERNEST, a wooden boat designed by Royal Lowell, which she also owns.
There is a Wesmac 38 at the shore they are working on.
Gloucester Marine Railway, Gloucester, MA
There is always something interesting going on here. They have a Newman 46 lobster boat up having her transmission replaced.
Then there is a LCM (Landing Craft, Mechanical), owned by Crabi Robotics, which is a research/development vessel. They are designing and building a scrubber system for the bottom of tankers. The yard built a big wing on the starboard side of it so they can mount the scrubber to the side. The scrubber magnetizes itself; the wing drops down and then it walks off onto the bottom of the hull. They are getting ready to make sure their prototype works.
MORNING STAR II is on the railway getting repair work done. Just before her they had the 85-foot steel trawler MIDNIGHT SUN on the railway. They changed out her 3412 engine and replaced it with a Mitsubishi and then painted the hull.
When MORNING STAR II comes off, she will be replaced by the schooner ERNESTINA of New Bedford, which is just getting a shave and a haircut. It was also thought she needed a Coast Guard inspection. The south railway is blocked and waiting for BLACK MOODY. They also have MARISSA & JULIE followed by LYNN WILLIAM coming up on this track.
The south railway cradle was recently rebuilt. They used the original longitudinals and they got 45-foot x 16-inch I-beams and laid them across the longitudinals. They now have 14 I-beams across the cradle for keel blocks. The north cradle is all wood, which is better for the schooners. Then they replaced all the chain (back-haul chain and haul chain) with all new shackles and swivels.
