This is a view of the stern of the 28-foot lobster boat/racer CHRISTOPHER, built by Mariner and Isaac Beal in 1976, and owned by Isaac Beal. The transom had some pieces that needed to be replaced. So, the transom was removed and is in the process of being rebuilt.
This is the schooner BRILLIANT, owned by Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut having work done at Rockport Marine in Rockport. This is a view showing how they opened her up to work on the frames.
Bridges Point Boat Company, West Tremont, Maine
One of the nicest daysailers has to be the Bridges Point 24, which was designed by Joel White of Brooklin for Wade Dow in the 1980s. Wade built nearly 90 of this design before selling the moulds to Bill Wright of Bridges Point Boat Co. Bill has produced several, but mainly he makes repairs or a full restoration.
Unfortunately, Bill had a medical issue during the summer of 2023 and is still trying to fully recover.
In the shop he has his father’s Bridges Point 24, which is hull #23 built in the early 1990s. She has been out of the water the last two season, but Bill is determined to get her ready for the water this coming summer. She has an electric motor so he is going to charge the batteries and get the engine running. He is then going replace the PVC toe rails with wooden ones, strip the varnish and then revarnish the exterior wood. He also hopes at some point to give her a paint job. He is thinking he may put her on the market or his Able Whistler 32, designed by Chuck Paine. The Whistler 32 was launched last summer, but after only five days in the water her engine developed an issue with her oil pan gasket. He was getting ready to remove the engine and then have John Spofford come in and replace the gasket and make sure everything else is good to go for this coming season.
Even though he did not have his boat, the summer was not a total loss as he sailed out of the Community Sailing Center a few times.
I asked if he would build a new boat and he did not know. He wants to get his energy level back before he takes on a big project. He did think he might lay up the hull and deck and then find someone else to finish it off. He had a couple of people interested this fall, but he asked them to hold off for several months and give him a call in the spring.
Henry B. Dupont Preservation Shipyard, Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut
One place I really enjoy visiting is Mystic Seaport Museum’s shipyard. They always have something interesting going on.
Presently, the major project is the rebuilding of the Gloucester fishing schooner L. A. DUTTON. She was hauled out two winters ago by two huge cranes and set at the northern end of the Shipyard. Last spring they lifted her bow and they have just finished lifting the stern about 26 inches. She now has her sheer back. The shipwrights are working on shoring up her ends. They are also working on her backbone and have her stem and keel in place back to almost amidships. There is still a lot of wood that needs to be removed and that will be done systematically as they replace the piece removed with a new one. This is a seven-year project, which is being done by four fulltime shipwrights and a host of volunteers, who only work a couple of days a week.
Inside the main building is the fishing schooner EMMA C. BERRY. She is having work done on her keel, along with a few planks. She will probably be in the shop another 12 months.
Also in the main shop is NELLIE, one of the sandbaggers, and she is undergoing a major restoration. She is currently getting a new keel, frames, floors and a new deck.
The replica 120-ton bark SUSAN CONSTANT, owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia, is in for some restoration work. The original was the vessel that sailed from England to Virginia to settle a colony at Jamestown in 1607 and Jamestown is the replica’s homeport. She was built at the Curtis-Dunn Marine Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, who also built the other two vessels, which were on the voyage: GODSPEED and DISCOVERY. She was hauled out last July and will be at the Shipyard another year and a half. The keel was fine, so the work has concentrated on her frames. Once this aspect is complete they will begin on her planking, which only needs minor work. Other work will include the gun ports and stern gallery. This will put her in good condition and prevent a major restoration project in the near future.
AMISTAD comes routinely to the Shipyard, but she will not be hauled out this year. She is sitting over at the wharf next to the whaler CHARLES W. MORGAN. They are working on her stern and she will be getting new spars. The spars are being built by Snedicker Yacht Restoration in Old Mystic (Pawcatuck), Connecticut.
MAYFLOWER, which they haul every three years, is due to be hauled this year so she can be inspected. She will also get her usual annual maintenance, paint the bottom and some caulking.
Rockport Marine, Rockport, Maine
Project Ouzel, a 95-foot pilothouse sloop, is one of the main jobs at the yard this winter. This is a new build, designed by Langan Design Partners of Newport, Rhode Island and Mark Whiteley Design of Hampshire, England. The cold-moulded hull was started November 2023 and built of Douglas fir, Western red cedar and carbon fibre. The deck is now in place and they have been working on her interior and her systems. She is ten months away from going into the water.
Also in the shop is the Sparkman & Stephens designed 61-foot schooner BRILLIANT, owned by Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. She is in having repairs made to her backbone and frame ends. They will also remove her GM 371 and repower her with a Yanmar Diesel. This is a complexed system with the engine far forward with a custom chain drive drop gear. In fact, the engine mounts are integral to the top of the cast bronze fuel tank and the chain drive is mounted on the aft end of the tank. It is not as simple as an old diesel out and a new diesel in. They are going to work with the old system as she is a Coast Guard certified boat, and they do not want to make any changes that mean she losses her grandfather status. Presently, they are getting the shaft and bearings approved so they can move forward.
The L. Francis Herreshoff designed NARWHAL, built by Legendary Yachts of Port Townsend, Washington in 1999. She underwent a major restoration and just after, during a major storm in Newport, Rhode Island, she went aground and suffered major damage to her cold moulded hull. She was brought to Rockport Marine in 2023 and they began making repairs to the numerous holes. Then then made repairs due to water damage. This was finished this year and she was launched, but since her owner was not going to use her this past summer she remained in Rockport. The current plan is that she will be going to Front Street Shipyard in Belfast to be stored for the winter.
There is a lot of talk about new projects, both new builds and repair projects, but nothing has been confirmed at this time. Presently, with the current projects they will be busy through next summer.
Rumery’s Boat Yard, Biddeford, Maine
Electric power is a major subject in today’s world and the boating is no exception. Over the years there has been a number of boats either built or repowered with electric engines. Early on the technology was not where it needed to be and the results were not as expected, however today the technology has improved considerably. Rumery’s Boat Yard has been focusing on electric power and this is headed by Matt Tarpey, who owns Maine Electric Boat Co.
Out in the side shop they have a boat with a Flux outboard. Flux Marine of Bristol, Rhode Island offers four models with a 100-hp electric outboard. Sean Tarpey, owner of Rumery’s Boat Yard added, “Our goal is to get the working waterfront to at least understand what an electric boat is all about and how it can be used so they can set it up and use an electric motor just the way they would use an internal combustion motor and not suffer range anxiety. There are several ways of doing that. The most effective is to have a little device that you put on your boat, which will monitor your use over a month or two and then the engineers can analyze how you use your boat and then match the horsepower and battery capacity to what you want to do. Then you can go out and use the boat without changing your patterns. Matt is working on that and he is working on getting some people trained in repairing and installing them. You have got three different types of electric boats. You have boats that run on 12 volts, ones that run on 50 volts and ones that run on 400 volts. The one out there is 400 volts. His goal is to get 4 or 5 people who are trained in the high-voltage part of this so that once people start embracing electric motors, they have a place to turn to get things fixed.”
“Torqeedo was out there for a while and they had some growing pains,” continued Sean. “They changed hands and now they are in the Yamaha group. Torqeedo is very closely related to the E-Propulsion people and are starting to develop larger inboard motors. The oyster farm in Yarmouth has got an aluminum boat that they had built. The aquaculture people go out every day in Carolina Skiffs. They use a particular model, extra wide and a little extra long. When asked how they like it? “I hate it.” Carolina Skiff does not make them anymore and they scour the used market and buy them up. Maine really needs to develop an aquaculture boat. Matt is trying to persuade the State to help support that project and so far the State has not been very welcoming to electric propulsion.”
They have the Flux powered boat so they can show interested customers what it will do. There is no question that there are certain applications where it makes sense.
Also in the side shop was another boat powered with a small electric engine. Unfortunately the lower unit, which is the entire electric engine, struck a rock hard enough to crack the case. They will be repairing this boat with a new unit, because water got into the internal workings making it unrepairable.
The yard stores approximately 80 boats and each of these need some degree of work before going over in the spring. They have the usual annual maintenance, paint, varnish and systems, however, one sailboat will be getting a roller-boom.
Woodman Boats, Kennebunkport, Maine
One never knows what they might find going on in some of the yards along the coast. When I stopped by Woodman Boats I was thinking that the lobster boat they started rebuilding a couple of years ago would be back inside to finish the project. I was certainly surprised to see a bright finished runabout getting a major rebuild. They started the project by removing the hardware, stripping out the interior, including frames that were not original, and removing the transom.
This boat is a 26-foot Chris Craft standard runabout, hull #72, built in 1924. John Perkins, her owner, said, “This was the first and only model that Chris Craft built when they entered the recreational boat business starting in 1922. It was the only model boat that they manufactured from 1922 through ’25. There are approximately 10, maybe 12, of these original numbered hull boats left in existence. This one is original and also has the original power plant which was a marinized Curtis OX5 aircraft engine. The engine and the transmission have been extensively rebuilt over the course of about 5 or 6 years. In doing this, we addressed all of the shortcomings that it was born with and incorporated some new technology and parts. Now we have an engine that will exceed what the original service life was when it was in the Curtiss Jenny airplane which was roughly 70 to 90 hours.”
Rich Woodman, owner of the shop, is rebuilding some of the knees and braces. Someone in her distant past had tried to make repairs, but they did not do a very good job. Rich explained, “We have taken out the stringers and we are going to put in new stringers, but not until we address every frame that isn’t original or complete. So, frames first, stringers next, then we will roll her over. I think what we are going to do is a cold moulded bottom. The bottom was two layers. They always did an inter-diagonal, a layer of canvas and then an outer fore and aft layer.”
John added, “The catalogue at the time would be very up front and tell you, depending on use, expect probably 7 to 8 years worth of use out of the bottom before it needs replacement.”
“The bottom we are putting on,” said Rich, “will go longer than that. It will appear the same, but I will probably do a double-diagonal. I don’t know if we will vacuum bag or just hand layup two diagonals and then a fore and aft and when that is all glued up, we will take those panels and set them aside; take the old bottom off and then reattach the new bottom to the keel. There is going to have to be a new keel, new chines and then put the bottom on.”
John added, “We didn’t put the proverbial cart before the horse and what I mean by that, is that we got all of the mechanical which you have seen, the transmission, engine, hardware, steering column, steering box, all of that, has been retained. This will make this job a lot easier.”
A big question arose as to what model was this. Rich explained, “I have taken a laser and shot it right through the strut, up through the shaft log and establish the shaft line in the boat. We married it to the mounts on the OX5 over there and said that engine go here.”
John added, “That was significant because they made the boat in two different configurations. One was what is today referred to as a triple cockpit, which there were two forward cockpits, the engine bay and the rear cockpit. The other configuration that they built was a single forward cockpit. Otherwise, we would not have known had we not had the engine, strut and the stuffing box. Everything was just lining up.”
This determined that she was the standardized model with the engine right behind the helm seat, with two rows of seating aft of the engine. An advertisement that appeared in Motor Boating, May 1924 said she was 26-feet by 6 feet 8-inches by 24-inches; powered with a 100-hp Smith-Curtiss V8; speed 32 to 35 mph; at a cost of $3,200.
Rich is hoping to have this project completed next fall.
The lobster boat he was rebuilding has been moved into a temporary shop on the side of the main shop, where he can comfortably work on her. She is the 30-foot Booth Chick built MELODY, which fished for years out of Kennebunkport. Rich said that he now had a client that wants to see her finished off as a lobster boat, which pleased Rich. When he started working on her two years ago, he had reframed her half way from the transom to the buulkhead, when his charter boat ELEANOR fell off her jack stands suffering some minor damage, which needed to be repaired by the season started. He is going to finish the framing and then put in the platform. She originally had a cedar deck, but Rich is thinking of plywood and fiberglass. There is a little bit of plank work and then he will replace the trunk and house. She is powered with 292 Chevy, which should be good to go.
