A close-up view of the cockpit of the Bunker & Ellis power yacht being restored at Ellis Boat Company in Manset.
John’s Bay Boat Co. in South Bristol has many of their boats return for their annual maintenance or a major upgrade.
Ellis Boat Co. – Manset, Maine
The Bunker & Ellis, built for sportfishing in 1968 or 1969, they have been rebuilding since last year has received her new engines. She was originally powered with twin gasoline Volvos and these have been replaced with twin 250-hp Yanmars. Shane Ellis, who oversees all operations, said, “They fit barely. We did all of the drawings, but we were maybe an inch and a half off. So, headroom is going to be a little tight, but it will be fine.”
The hull has all been sistered, refastened and bunged. They have just a little more to do and that is finished. One of the carpenters said the cotton needs to be redone so they are probably going to recaulk her. They have been getting some help from Richard Helmke of Bass Harbor Boat in Bernard. He comes over and gives them advice on what needs to be done. Shane added, “He has been a great resource. I think he chuckles that we are actually tackling this. So far, we have been all right.”
There were a couple of places in the deck where water had snuck in. They removed the forward deck from the stem head back to the forward part of the trunk cabin. They have the deck beams replaced and are now getting ready to put down the deck. They also redid the aft deck. They removed the fish tanks and made the aft deck slightly smaller.
As for the interior it is still original and Shane said, “We haven’t even thought about what we are going to do yet.”
They hope to splash her next year as there are just so many other projects that need to be done first. The owner’s son is getting his captain’s license and may do six-pack day charters.
Two Ellis 36s will becoming in for some restoration work this winter. One of these will be going into Ellis’ charter fleet. This boat was recently for sale, but Shane knew that she had been sold to a customer from Northeast Harbor, who said that he would charter her. So, before she goes into the charter fleet, she will be made to look brand new. They will make sure that all the systems are working properly and she will get a new suite of updated electronics.
The other Ellis 36 was in the charter fleet about 10 years ago. She will be getting a number of systems replaced as well as a full array of electronics.
Both of these boats were built in the late 1990s and one of the best charter boats is one that was built in 1999, DOWNEASTER.
Another project in the shop is converting an Ellis 24 to a 26. Most of the 24s were built with inboard gasoline engines, but this one had a Volvo diesel stern drive. They are aging out and need to have their engines upgraded, which is done by adding a two-foot extension and powered with a 250-hp Suzuki outboard.
The charter business was good this year, but it really fell off in September even though the weather was very nice. Shane said that last September was good even though a hurricane came through. He wondered if people thought another hurricane might strike again and did not opt to charter.
They have 12 boats in the charter fleet and each one of them will be coming in for their annual maintenance and maybe additional repairs if needed. Most owners opt to make upgrades every year. One year they may paint the boat. Another year maybe new cushions or upgrade the electronics. When they are in the charter business they must always run well and look new. For the owner who charters, this is one way to defray the costs of owning a boat.
With all this work Shane said they would not be building a new boat this winter, even though he wanted to. He is thinking he might want to start a new boat next year during the summer.
Farrin’s Boat Shop – Walpole, Maine
The State of Maine has just received their newest patrol boat, a Calvin Beal 42, which will be homeported in Jonesport. This is a duplicate of the one they finished off a couple of years ago, which went to Boothbay Harbor. The one in Boothbay Harbor is being transferred to the west’ard and she will be replaced by the Wesmac 57, which is currently under construction at Wesmac in Surry.
This boat is powered with an 800-hp MAN, which as a ZF gear, 2½-inch shaft and a 33 x 38 Michigan DQX propeller with a #3 cup. She carries 400 gallons of fuel.
Down below she has a queen-sized berth, which will be used for rescued persons that might need a berth. There is a small head with a hanging locker for stowing wet gear and a galley with microwave, small refrigerator and sink. Up in the shelter there is a settee and a bench helm seat with storage under it, mostly for electronic components. There is an outside steering station with a sliding window, which allows the outside station to communicate with the inside person. She also sports a 17-inch pot hauler supplied by Billings & Cole Hydraulics; the exhaust system was from Soundown; steering was from Marine Hydraulics and Billings & Cole; and she has a diesel fired heater. There are two heated films on the windshield to keep the frost and ice off; the electronics were furnished by Sawyer & Whitten; she has ½-inch rubber decking and the stainless work was done by Blue Water Fabrication.
Presently in the shop is MISS QUAHOG, a 45 Young Brothers. She is in for general maintenance, but mostly to apply ½-inch rubber decking. The owner has a captain’s license and he’s going to take out offshore tuna charters, so they will also be installing a head and several creature comforts that they might need for chartering.
She should be finished and out by the middle of November and she will be replaced with a Northern Bay 36, which has been laid up and stretched by Chislet Marine in Dover, New Hampshire. She will be finished off as a family cruiser/sportfishermen.
In the front bay they have a Young Brothers 40, which is being finished out as sportfisherman/utility boat for a customer in the Caribbean. One thing that is different is that she will have tankage for about 200 gallons of water, which is a scarce commodity in the islands. As for fuel, she will carry between 300 and 400 gallons. Down below she will have two V-berths, head and shower, small galley (hot plate and refrigerator). Then there will be bench seating up in the pilothouse. She is going to have drop curtains on the sides and probably the rear curtain will roll-up. They will also need to add a 5-foot 6-inch fish box, fully insulated.
The owner wanted to have wooden rails. Bruce Farrin said, “For the first time since ’86 I think I had to build a steam box to make the spray rails, quarter guards and toe rails. Brian remembers doing this as a younger man, but the two other guys were quite intrigued with it. We are now looking for bronze fixtures. We found some but they are quite expensive as she will be trimmed out in all bronze.
They also have two repair jobs, one of which is on a Duffy 35 lobster boat with port-side haul. Farrins had built this boat for a young fisherman from Kennebunkport and the new owner wants to give her a face-lift.
Johanson Boatworks – West Rockport, Maine
One of the preeminent boat yards on the Coast of Maine is Johanson Boatworks, which began almost 40 years ago. Mary and Peter did an incredible job making sure they had good employees that were well taken care of and did the same for their customers over all those years. Several years ago, they decided to slow up their involvement with the hope of finding a new owner that would continue the business at the same high level they had. They are extremely happy to have found Nathaniel Seekins of Searsport and Scott Lawliss of Mount Desert Island, who have the experience and drive to continue operating the yard at the same standards they did. On 1 November Peter and Mary were looking to head south to their home in the Bahamas. Peter said that he will be back in the spring to help some with the spring launches, but other than that he does not expect to return very much.
As usual the yard has a full schedule of winter’s work. A Hinckley Sou’wester 42 is coming in for some deck repairs. The core is wet in places and the new owner wants this replaced and the deck and topsides Awlgripped. He also wants some other minor work done this winter before she goes over in the spring.
A Bristol 45, an O’Day 40 and a Cal 39 will all be getting repowered this winter.
An Ensign, which is a family boat, will be coming in and be totally restored.
The paint bay is booked. Besides the Hinckley Sou’Wester 42, they have a Sabre 38, a Hinckley 50 and several other boats looking to be painted.
There is no question that the new owners and crew will be busy this winter.
Lyman-Morse Fabrication – Rockland, Maine
The big job currently on the floor is a 50-foot all electric aluminum catamaran, built to U. S. Coast Guard Subchapter T specs. She is essentially a research vessel, which will be operating in the Chesapeake Bay area. The owner is Upstream Alliance and they take children out on the water and do a variety of environmental studies.
This boat was started in February and had some hold-ups with the Coast Guard as she is the first of her type using lithium-ion batteries in a Sub-Chapter T vessel. The vessel was designed by Dave Gerr and will be named FIRE FLY. She is about 60 percent complete. Both hulls are done and they were getting ready to start on the deck. Once this is complete, she will be heading done to Lyman-Morse’s yard in Thomaston to have her motors and batteries installed as well as everything else that is not metal fabrication. There is already another customer looking to have a sister built, but she is going to be diesel-electric and they will be bidding on that project.
Next to the 50-footer is a 32-foot aluminum V-hull pilothouse fireboat for Clinton, Connecticut, which can pump about 1,000-gallons of water a minute from a remote monitor on the pilothouse roof. There are also several other locations that they can hook up fire-fighting hoses to on the deck. This boat will be powered with twin 350-hp outboards and controlled with joysticks in three different locations. She will also have a state-of-the-art electronics package.
Lyman-Morse Fabrication has done other fire fighting boats, but not to this level. This is the first with an engine driven 1,000-gallon a minute pump. The fireboats in the past have had mobile pumps on deck.
Just sent down to the yard in Thomaston was an aluminum 26-foot research boat for the University of Rhode Island. She has a cuddy cabin, pilothouse with a forward raking windshield. Power comes from twin 250-hp outboards. She is going to have a lot of different sonar equipment on board for doing seabed studies.
Also under construction in the shop is a 20-foot fire boat for the Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts. She is a centre console with a small pump on deck and a single outboard on the stern.
They have two boats that are in the design phase at Response Marine in Massachusetts. Once the designs are complete they will begin cutting the aluminum. One of the boats is for the City of Portland and will be the new Harbor Master’s boat. She is going to be about 26 feet with a pilothouse. The other is a 33-foot landing craft for the Smithsonian in Panama. She will be used as an ambulance vessel, so this one will be fitted out with places to put gurneys in the house and on deck. She will have a ramp access and this is a very similar design to what they have built in the past for other customers with some minor changes.
This yard is gaining a great reputation for the aluminum boats they build. Beyond the ones they have already on order they have several projects they are bidding on and this could keep them busy for a number of months.
