BOATS & GEAR
AROUND THE YARDS
NORTHEAST
Libby boats designed to pack a lot of weight; diesel record set at Maine lobster boat races
The East Side Boat Shop launched the “Yes Dear,” a 41 Libby, for a Rockland lobsterman.
he East Side Boat Shop in Machiasport, Maine, launched the “Yes Dear,” a 41' x 15' 8" Libby with a 1,000-hp FPT, for a Rockland, Maine, lobsterman. Frank Coffin, the shop’s owner, figures the FPT will easily get the “Yes Dear” to 32 or 33 knots. He describes the “Yes Dear” as a “standard plain-Jane lobster boat. Nothing fancy.” It is composite constructed with a split wheelhouse, V-berths forward, an open stern with a tailgate, but no lobster tanks or rope lockers. The East Side Boat Shop has the Libby 34, 38, 41 and 47 molds. Coffin has found the Ernest Libby designed hulls to be very good at carrying a lot of weight. The owner of a 47 Libby that Coffin built a few years back reported that with 220 lobster traps aboard, along with all its trawl ropes and bay ropes and full fuel tanks, she was able to cruise at 15 to 16 knots. The boat’s owner told Coffin, “I’d like to see any of these other hulls go that fast with that much weight in them.” Coffin attributes the Libby weightcarrying capacity to the hull’s rocker. “The Libby’s got a different type of
rocker in her. They don’t jump up; they just rise as they are going along. They ride their weight more on the middle of the boat.” The fourth week in June, another 41 Libby was nearly completed for a lobsterman on Bailey Island, Maine. She’s outfitted a bit more extensively than the “Yes Dear,”with lobster tanks, a rope locker, aluminum framed windows, stainless steering and an on-demand hydraulic system. A 700-hp Volvo should have her cruising at 28 to 29 knots. In the yard outside the shop is a hull that will be a plug for a new 41 Libby mold. This one will have a 10-inch
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34 National Fisherman \ October 2021
Friendship Boats
East Side Boat Shop
By Michael Crowley
deeper keel to allow for a bigger wheel and 5- to 7-inch-higher sides. “These guys are running such horsepower now,” says Coffin, “that you can’t get a wheel under her. The average now is 800 to 1,000 hp.You don’t need it.” Maine’s lobster boat racing passed the halfway mark with races at Stonington on July 11, Friendship on July 18 and Harpswell on July 25; 142 boats showed up for the three races. More boats would undoubtedly have come were it not for heavy rain and choppy racing conditions at Friendship and Harpswell. The Harpswell “races were fun to watch to see if they could keep them on the bottom; (the boats) were mostly in the air,” says Jon Johansen, president of Maine Lobster Boat Racing. The rainy conditions also meant that speeds weren’t available for most races. Though that wasn’t an issue at Stonington with 75 boats, including Wild Wild West, a West 28 with a 1,050-hp Isotta, which showed up for its first race of the season. She set a new diesel record, hitting 61.6 mph in the Non-Working Boats, any length, and any horsepower class. Blue Eyed Girl, a Morgan Bay 38 with a 900-hp Scania, which won several races earlier in the season, took first in Diesel Class K, 701 to 900 hp, 28 feet to 39 feet 11 inches, the Fastest Lobster Boat Afloat race and the Andrew Gove Memorial Cup — Fastest Working Lobster Boat. Andrew Gove died at 90 after a long career of fishing and racing his boat Uncle’s UFO, a Northern Bay 36 with a Continued on page 37
Downeast Nightmare was the top boat at the Harpswell races.
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