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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 12
August 2005
Keith Kastelic photo
Moosabec, Stonington events set stage for late season mayhem
STONINGTON, ME - With three races down and five left to go, the 2005 Maine lobster boat racing season has reached a savory juncture. At this point, anything might happen. It most likely won’t happen, but it could. In racing fans’ books, that’s the definition of “potential.”
The eight-race series began in Boothbay Harbor on June 18, and hit its midseason stride in July, with races at Moosabec on July 2, and Stonington on July 17.
A double header is set for the final weekend of the month; Friendship on Saturday, July 30, and Harpswell on Sunday, July 31. Three more races in August will then round out the season, scheduled to conclude at Searsport on Saturday, Aug. 20. That’s plenty of opportunity for some of that potential to develop into positive results.
At Moosabec, for example, Benny Beal’s venerable 28' Stella Ann was back on the course after a two-year hiatus. The raspy bark from Stella’s big block V-8 gas engine, painstakingly restored by Richard Weaver and crew, rattled windows the length of the reach as she re-claimed her title as “world’s fastest lobster boat.”
In Stella Ann’s points class, gasoline Class E, there were no other entries. In fact, she’s the first boat to even race in any Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association (MLBRA) Class E points competition for two full seasons now.
No official radar speeds were recorded at Moosabec, and Stella Ann didn’t travel to race at Stonington. But the potential is there for a Class E points championship this year if Stella comes out of the barn at least two more times, and maybe even for rewriting a few numbers in the speed records book.
At Stonington, fastest (working) boat honors, in the manifestation of the Jimmy Stevens Cup, went for the umpteenth season to Andrew Gove’s Mack-powered Northern Bay 36, Uncle’s UFO – which had not traveled to Moosabec to challenge Stella Ann. Though hometowner Gove breezed to victory in the Stevens cup race, he barely fended off a scary challenge from across East Penobscot Bay in the diesel Class N points race.
Vinalhaven’s Alfred Osgood and crew steamed into Deer Island Thorofare looking for a showdown with Uncle in their new version of Starlight Express, a Northern Bay 36 also powered by a big V-8 Mack. But unlike the UFO, Starlight’s Mack is reported to be packing quad turbos.
Neither Class N contender was very quick out of the blocks, but Uncle’s UFO got the edge and built up enough of a lead to hold off Starlight, which, once it got its turbos spinning up to speed, started to noticeably close the gap.
Stonington race committee radar reported a reading of 55.2 mph on Starlight Express as it made its charge, essentially blocking the sight line between Uncle’s UFO and radar man Carl Gray, who was trying to nail a speed on the winning boat. Gove, who was clocked at 47.2 mph a little later in the Stevens cup race, reportedly expressed doubt about the accuracy of the reading on Starlight Express.
Immediately following the Class N shoot-out there was some chatter on the VHF questioning the fairness of the start, but Stonington’s veteran race starter Jeff Eaton aboard Helen Arlene IV wasn’t buying it.
The Osgoods opted not to participate in a rematch in the diesel free-for-all race, and headed back to Vinalhaven before Gove’s end of the day scamper to the winner’s circle in the Stevens cup finale.
This is grist indeed for a race fan’s mill, as UFO holds the “official” diesel speed record of 53.5 mph, posted at Winter Harbor in 1999 (and tied by Brian Fraser in Venom last year at Pemaquid).
So will MLBRA recognize Starlight’s speed at Stonington to be a new record? Will Starlight Express square off against Uncle’s UFO on a different race course? Will the $1,000 bounty for breaking the diesel speed record at Pemaquid be claimed at last? Potential!
Snake bit
If unfulfilled potential were music, David Grant’s 28' Venom could haul a whole brass band. Grant, the regional Sisudiesel distributor from Farmington, ME, bought last year’s diesel Class K winner this spring from Thomaston builder Hutchinson Composites, minus Brian Fraser’s Isotta-Fraschini engine that had powered it to its flirtation with the diesel speed record.
Grant dropped one of his own 300 hp Sisu 620 diesels into Venom, which bumped her into Class C, and beat all comers in the opening race at Boothbay Harbor, posting a respectable 36.5 mph.
Then, a bad thing happened on the way to Moosabec Reach.
Venom apparently picked up some water in the fuel system and limped to a third place finish in a three boat race.
“We got about a quart of water out of her fuel tank. Hopefully that will solve the problem,” said Team Sisu member Keith Otis after the race.
But Venom’s fuel contamination problem proved to be pervasive, as the same condition developed at Stonington and Venom finished a distant second behind Dean Alley’s Rafy D., which won the class with a speed of 33.8 mph.
But Team Sisu doesn’t expect to take a third strike, and says Venom will be back on a pure diesel fuel diet in time for the Friendship races.
Moosabec highlights
In Moosabec on July 2, a foggy morning delayed the scheduled 10 am start until about noon (almost a standard operating procedure there), and low, showery, overcast skies the preceding day kept travel down and attendance low.
Yet Moosabeckers managed to do what hasn’t been accomplished at any other race port in recent years by staging a full card of racing in all five gasoline classes.
Iffy weather didn’t deter Skip Young of Bar Harbor from sailing his brand-spanking-new Silver Spoon to Moosabec and winning the diesel Class L race ahead of Chris Chipman’s Monica Tymen.
The D12 Volvo-powered Mitchell Cove 37 was tied up at the public float in Searsport where it was launched Friday afternoon, the day before the race, with Young still fastening down hardware. He’d been out for a trial run earlier that day, and though his GPS wasn’t yet dialed in, so he couldn’t report an exact speed, he declared that Silver Spoon was “cuffing right along” when he opened the throttle.
At Stonington, that translated into something a little less than 37.2 mph, which was the speed that Bill Hallinan’s Apparition II ran to edge out Silver Spoon in a close Class L heat.
For a complete list of Moosabec race winners, please refer to the results box sponsored by Hale Propeller on page 16B.
Ladies first at Stonington
At Stonington, the new Lady Skipper’s class that Julie Eaton had lobbied for successfully at the annual MLBRA meeting last March finally blossomed.
With nine boats running, the Lady Skippers contest drew the largest field of the day, and was won by Jean Thompson of Vinalhaven, who piloted her husband’s big Duffy 42 Independence to victory at a speed of 41 mph flat.
Eaton, who took first in the gas Class B contest in her own boat, Cat Sass, earlier in the day, finished back in the pack in the wild and wooly ladies contest at the helm of her husband Sid’s Kimberly Belle.
But Julie Eaton’s quest for “speed queen” status did gain another notch on the day when it appeared that she took the helm – with Sid smiling and waving from the transom – as Kimberly Belle took the diesel Class F race with a speed of 35.2 mph.
Full results and photos available.
Click here for lobsterboatracing.com
The Stonington races also marked the end of an era, as it was announced at the conclusion of competition that race committee stalwarts Jeff Eaton and Gary Eaton are standing down, and the call was issued for volunteers to take their places beginning next season.
Jeff Eaton has been involved in the Stonington races for a decade, and picked up the reins as head organizer when Brian Robbins moved off island eight years ago.
Also at that time, Gary Eaton took over Robbins’ spot behind the VHF microphone, and has been calling the races with great ability from the bridge of the Billings Diesel & Marine barge ever since.
Over the years, the two Eatons have built a well-deserved reputation for operating one of the best-organized racing events on the coast. The pair cited how much of a time commitment the races involve, and their desire to step away as winners, “while it’s still fun.”
They certainly closed strong, running almost seamlessly through a race card of more than 30 heats with nary a restart and minimal glitches during three-plus hours of intense competition on the thorofare. /cfn/
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