Maine lobster boat racers consider 2006 changes- November 2005 Commercial Fisheries News

Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 3
November 2005

Maine lobster boat racers consider 2006 changes

Boats at the starting line during lobster boat racing action at Stonington in 2005. While some points classes continue to be very popular, others have few participants. The MLBRA oversight committee is considering whether to combine or eliminate some classes of points challenge competition on the six-venue race circuit.

BELFAST, ME - High fuel prices and higher horsepower are two issues that the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association (MLBRA) is wrestling with as it begins to look forward to the 2006 racing season, while high insurance costs and high risks are two issues the group is attempting to steer clear of.

MLBRA capped the 2005 season with an awards banquet held at The Chowder House here on Sept. 24. Searsport race chairman Keith Otis declared the turnout of 57 people “encouraging” in a year that saw diminished attendance across the board at all eight Maine ports comprising the group’s race circuit.

Prior to the evening’s awards ceremony, the MLBRA oversight committee huddled to consider how to best deal with thin turnouts in some classes (10 of the 23 sanctioned classes had one or zero entrants this year); then voted to outlaw the use of turbochargers or “blowers” on gasoline engines.

According to MLBRA President Clive Farrin, the blower ban was in response to a question from racer Richard Weaver of Steuben.

In recent years, Weaver has been the engine guru for the venerable gas Class E racer Stella Ann, pride of Moosabec Reach, owned by Benny Beal of Jonesport. The V-8 Chevy that powered Stella Ann to reclaiming the “World’s Fastest Lobster Boat” title at Moosabec this year was naturally aspirated through 1974-vintage twin four-barrel Holley carburetors. Weaver was perhaps contemplating an upgrade for next season, which prompted the inquiry.

“We voted not to allow blowers on gas engines as a matter of safety and for insurance reasons,” Farrin explained. “You see these drag race cars on TV blowing up all the time. If we allow them in boats, then it’s not a matter of if there’ll be an explosion, but when. There’s no way we could afford to insure ourselves against something like that happening.”

Farrin said the committee wanted to take action on the matter early, as guidance for anyone working on power projects for next season.

“We didn’t want anyone to spend a lot of time and money and then be disappointed,” he said.

Supercharged gasoline engines have been allowed in lobster boat racing in the past. One notable example is Corliss Holland’s Red Baron, a perennial Class E contender, which ran a V-drive mounted, blower-assisted big block Ford Chief.

Glenn Holland of the Holland racing team has a different assessment of the risk from blowers on boat engines.

“They (blowers) don’t scare me,” he said. “The race cars you see erupting into flames on TV are top fuel dragsters and funny cars. They’re running nitro-methane, and ungodly amounts of it. That’s a whole different animal. The hot rods and street rods that burn gas are all turbocharged. You never hear about one of them blowing up.”

The oversight committee, however, would “rather err on the side of safety,” according to Farrin, than see disaster on the race course.

For Holland’s part, the technology is tested and the committee’s decision doesn’t matter to him.

“There are two dozen companies out there already building blower motors to put in boats,” he said. “Mercruiser builds blower motors that go into boats every day. They’re US Coast Guard approved.”

Holland added, “I’m going to have one, for work and for racing. They might not let me race with it, but I’m going to have one.”

The oversight committee plans one more meeting prior to the annual MLBRA meeting on the morning of March 4 at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.

Race series coordinator Jon Johansen of Maine Coastal News is researching the level of boats’ participation so the committee can consider the possibility of combining or eliminating some classes. More discussion on the blower ban may also take place at that time, which Johansen says will be “sometime in February.”

A report will then be made to the general membership at the March 4 meeting. /cfn/

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