Page 8. MAINE COASTAL NEWS March 2016 Rebuilding of the Gloucester Schooner ERNESTINA-MORRISSEY


BOOTHBAY HARBOR – There are a num- ber of people that have ties to one of the most memorable eras of commercial fi shing, the sailing fi sherman, but more precisely the Gloucester schooner. There are a number of these vessels still surviving, some in better condition than others. One that was falling into disrepair very quickly was ERNES- TINA-MORRISSEY, but fortunately the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has got behind the preservation of this schooner. They raised a substantial sum of money; put the project out to bid and that bid was won by Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in Boothbay Harbor.


She was scheduled to be at the Shipyard early last winter, but Mother Nature raised havoc and she did not arrive at the yard until late in the spring. Despite this delay, progress since then has been impressive. This is not the fi rst time ERNESTI- NA-MORRISSEY has been at the yard. Back eight years ago she was in to have the forward section redone. Project Manager Ross Branch added, “In 2007 and 2008 Boothbay Harbor Shipyard redid the fram- ing forward of the break in the deck and up from the waterline. They replanked that section and put a new deck on. So we are now doing everything else.”


Once she was hauled up they removed the interior and mechanical systems. Ross said, “We had plans from 1931 for the boat, which everyone believes were the sweetest. Then we had a laser scan of the boat as it sits there now. We are locked into the forward section that we did in 2007 and 2008 and what we wanted to try and do is to blend that to the drawing of 1931. We then built a lofting table in this shop that was 65 x 20 feet and lofted the lines out at half scale so we could marry those two together. Then


we did the body sections and an expansion of the stern in full scale so we could make the patterns. We have made frame patterns for every frame and all the stern structure, construction pieces like keel, keelson, stern post, deadwood, horn timber, tail feather and the transom. That was about a fi ve or six week process to loft and then making the patterns.” With many of the pieces made, they are beginning to piece them together. Ross continued, “Other pieces have been made and are waiting to be fi t into the keel. Once the location is fi nally set then we will be able to cut mortices into the keel to fi t things like the rudder and the stern posts. After the keel is fi t the stern piece of the keel will come in- side for fi tting those pieces and the four lead pieces, which are 15,000 pounds apiece, for a total of 60,000 pounds. When this is done the keel will start making its way one piece at a time underneath the boat.”


Once the keel and its pieces are in place under the boat, they will start putting the stern structure together. The stern and rudder posts will be put in place and then they will get the transom stood up. “Then we will start working on the frames, starting from the last frame, which is number, 48,” said Ross. “We will start working forward to the break in the deck at frame 25. The fi rst square frame is 36 and that will be a full double sawn frame section with a cross ball and that will get dropped in as a single piece. The cants have one half on one side and one half on the other and they meet things like the tail feather, stern post or various other posts.” Going back to the lofting process, Ross further explained, “When lofting you’ve got two things. You’ve got the fi xed picture that we had and then blending it to the ‘31. In ad- dition to that, things have been altered from


Marketing Workshop


The new keel being fi tted outside the main shop to the four pieces of lead.


its original design. When the boat arrived here on this trip it carried around 112,000 pounds of internal ballast. About half of that, 60,000 pounds, is being replaced by the external lead ballast. The entire planking was 3 inches thick and now the garboards are 5 inches and the broad strakes are 4 inches and the rest of the planking is 3. So that had to be blended in as well. So the garboards and the broads both taper to 3 inches at the forward and after end of the boat.” Boothbay Harbor Shipyard is using the best material available. “We are getting this really huge stuff from Denmark,” said Ross. “Now we have got this really nice live oak for the curved portions of the frames coming out of southern Georgia.


For fastenings they are using a lot more, and a lot heavier, bronze, which was not used originally. The main keel bolts are an inch and a quarter and they are buying


rod and threading it. The locator bolts are an inch. Floors will be bolted together with three-quarter inch bronze right at the keel then they will be treenailed together with black locus treenails.


By mid-February the keel will be fi tted under the boat and by the end of February they hope to have the stern structure in place. This will be followed by cutting out the framing.


Ross has been at the yard for less than a year and previous to that he was working at Hodgdon Yachts in East Boothbay on the extremely high tech Open 100 racer COMANCHE. He said, “I have done some timber framing, some other wooden boat projects, but nothing of this scale or this big. I like it, it is fun. This is a great proj- ect, great materials, great facility and then


Continued on Page 9.


FRONT STREET - FERRY BUILDER Continued from Page 7.


hybrid and electric technology they have to have weight savings to make it worthwhile. We can make hybrids and electric boats more viable. It is a pretty straightforward build. The hulls a moulded and the decks and superstructure are mostly fl at panels. We would have to invest in a C&C waterjet machine, which would also serve other functions. We would have to build Building 6, which we would like to do anyway. What we would do is actually keep Building 5 for building the ferries. Building 6 would be for


refi ts, because we drive the big travelift into the building directly.”


They have had a meeting with State of


Maine offi cials about building a composite ferry. JB said, “Steel is cheap. They don’t think about what is going to happen with the cost of fuel in a few years. With them it isn’t about maintenance or the cost of the fuel in the future, it’s all about what it will cost today.”


Maybe someday someone in State gov- ernment will the basics of economics and how using proven technology can save the tax payer money.


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$30 $20 for members


28 April Ellsworth City Hall 1 City Hall Plaza Ellsworth, Maine


For information call (207) 899-7570


EDGECOMB BOAT WORKS Continued from Page 6.


young kid, who has been working here in the springtime for probably 10 years so he knows the program. This spring when he was here, he was working in New York, talked about how miserable he was I said “Do you want a full-time job?” He’s a great painter and very skilled.”


He also hired a new mechanic, who has a lot of experience in all types of engines. He had worked on the draggers in Gloucester for a time and then he went out on his own with a mobile mechanical business for over a decade. When he got tired of that he worked at John’s Bay Boat Company, before going over to work at Boothbay Region Boat Yard. “It is not just a job to any of these guys,” said Mitch. “They care about what comes out of here and that is hard to fi nd in most of today’s workers.”


Mitch grew up in Edgecomb. He said, “My great-grandfather, who I never met, he ran boats for the Prescott family in South Bristol and my great uncle still works for them. His two brothers worked at Rice Brothers Shipyard. Not to be cliché, it is in


my blood. So I have always been into boats. I started working at Carousel Marina when I was 15 pumping gas. Then I decided I want- ed to go to Maine Maritime Academy and my fi rst internship was at Boothbay Region Boat Yard.”


Mitch graduated from Maine Maritime Academy with a degree in Marina Manage- ment in 2003, adding, “That was a great school and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. That was the best decision and in fact before I went out on my own, I toyed with going back.


“I ended up doing all of my internship work at Boothbay Region Boatyard and that last summer they offered by a full-time job. I was the dock master and then I became a service manager. I learned a lot from Dick Orne and I still think the world of him. I learned a lot from Jeffrey (Lowell) too.” “When I was at BRB we were always waiting for the boat hauler to show up,” said Mitch, “and I saw an opportunity. My plan was, I will start a boat transport business, laying out a good customer base, and then I would start a boat yard. Well, it happened a lot quicker than I thought.”


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