August 2014 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 5. Lash Boatyard Completes First Wesmac Super-Wide 46
FRIENDSHIP – For months we have long awaited the launch day of the new Wesmac Super-Wide 46 from Lash Boatyard in Friendship. Following the death of Wes Lash, Sr., in the spring of 2013, young Wes carried on the business. Over the years he had paid attention and learned the fi ner points of boatbuilding. All spring I would stop by and watch the progress and when she was done, his father would have been extremely proud. Wes said, “When my dad was still alive, the owner had talked about building a new boat. He is a repeat customer. He had graduated in’08, and stepped into an RP 40. He was going more offshore and wanted to have another boat, so he approached my father about a 46 Super Wide that they were coming out with. When Steve (Wessel, owner of Wesmac) decided to make the plug for it, my dad died, and the owner came to me and still wanted me to do it. My father’s reputation was my father’s, but he said he wouldn’t take it anywhere else.” The hull arrived just before Christmas. They brought it in the shop, blocked it up, looked it over and Wes began ordering a few things. Wes added, “The engine was in, Steve wanted the engine back, and I under- stood he didn’t know how it was going sit or perform. I would say back a couple feet more than normal. He also had the main bulkhead in and the rest we did. We used the traditional oak washboards and beams and then I boxed them all in with Coosa board so it was like a moulded unit. There isn’t any wood in the boat, it is all I-beams and angles and Coosa board.” Wes also designed and custom built the cabin and shelter. He learned how to do this from his father, adding “I knew kind of what I wanted to have it look like. I did a lot of re- search, just looked at boats he had put houses on and did measurements and tried to make it proportional, but it doesn’t always work out and you still have to eyeball it. I remember
my father saying cheat that in here, and cheat it in there and this is how it should look here. I think it came out okay. I mean at fi rst it was really overwhelming. I have to admit I don’t know how my father did two at a time and this was my fi rst one without him being here. Remembering to order stuff so you had three other guys busy was the biggest challenge. I had to start thinking ahead and started doing more homework.”
Down below there is just a V-berth, a hydraulic room and some storage. The en- gine is a 750-hp FPT with a 2.4 ZF 360 gear to a 2½-inch shaft and a 32 x 37 propeller. The rudder was fabricated by Simmons Welding who also did the cage and davit. Mark’s Metal did some of the other fab- rication work. Mark’s Metal did the riser, which Wes explained, “I didn’t want to put a surge tube in because I didn’t want it to take up all that room around the valve so he fabricated me a stainless riser that came up with a bellows in it. It is rubber mounted, so it has a little bit of give. He also did the radar stand.”
The platform was built all of compos-
ite material. There are two 250 gallon fuel tanks, solid glass, and then there is a 2,000 pound lobster tank in the middle. She has a 14-inch hauler from National Marine Hydraulics in Rockland. Wes added, “I had Billings and Cole get me the hauler motor that runs off the gear, and the steering pump. I had him also do the hydraulics.” Following the sea trials there was one very happy owner. The boat performed just as he wanted.
What was next, well the next morning they had a lobster boat coming in that was going to be repowered. A Cummins was coming out and they would be replacing it with an 800-hp Caterpillar. They would also be shortening the house, doing some gel- coat work and wiring. This will take about a month to complete. Wes said they also have an Osmond 42 coming in this fall. He also
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HAULIN' ASH, a Wesmac Super Wide 46, fi nished out as a lobster boat for a local fi sherman.
had someone coming from Gloucester that needs to have a new shelter and platform put in.
Wes is a fi rm believer in using Coosa for the platform. He explained, “I am con- vinced that you do that once and if you make it rugged and you glass it up nice it won’t disintegrate and rot under your fi ngers. My father didn’t use this technology as much. It is more money up front, three times the mon- ey initially. We’ve got boats that are 15 to 18 years old that are on their third platform. If you build it with composites you pay for it once and that is cheaper in the long run.” Wes grew up around boatbuilding. His
grandfather, Win Lash, became very well known for the boats he built and Wes’ fa- ther followed in his father’s foot-steps. Wes added, “I was always down around the old boat shop. Spent most of my time down there
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when they were building the wooden boats. I just always went with my grandfather places and always watched him.” When Wes graduated from high school he headed to Maine Maritime Academy and went shipping for a while after he graduated in 1992. He shipped out on the Great Lakes and enjoyed it. He began on an ore carrier named INDIANA HARBOR, and then went on a cement barge. There were some issues with the union and Wes said, “If I didn’t exist in the union eyes, you don’t exist so I came back and got a job here. Now when looking back the way things unfolded I got to spend 21 years working with my dad. Not many people can work with their father, let alone side by side every day. I learned patience and those little tricks that you have to use to
Continued on Page 18.
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