Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS April 2016 D B R G' B
WINTER HARBOR – There are lot of very interesting projects done in someone’s ga- rage, cellar or workshop. Some of these proj- ects never get the recognition they deserve, unless they come to light. One such project is underway at Dan Backman’s work shop, which is to the left of his on the opposite side of the driveway. Dan has a habit of doing projects that take several years to complete and so far this one is on its fi fth year. The project in question is the rebuilding of an Otto Backman built lobster boat from 1943. During World War II, Otto went to work
at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. While there he made a half model of a lobster boat he wanted to build on Kittery Point. In 1943, she was done, a 33 footer with an 8 foot 8½ inch beam. Otto left Kittery in 1946 or ’47 and
moved to Prospect Harbor and fi shed out of this boat. He lived there maybe fi ve years before moving to Winter Harbor. Over the years, this boat has had several
owners. Dan Backman said, “Barney Young bought it and Roy Stanley fi shed it out of Winter Harbor. Then Hiram Gerrish bought it and in 1963 he re-timbered it from the bulkhead back. He took one timber out and put one in. When Hiram had it that was the only time it had a V-8 gas engine. All the
others were inline six cylinders. I don’t know how long he had it, but next was Kendall Bickford and then Linwood Workman. After that Harry Whittier bought it over to Bunkers Harbor. When he got done, Freddie [Dan’s son] and I went over and looked at it and Freddie bought it. It has been here about 10 years probably. “I have got to save it for its sentimental
value,” continued Dan. “If you would’ve had to hire this done you might’ve as well burned it. The only thing left on it now that is original is the keel and the deck clamp. I replaced part of the skeg, part of the keel, shaft log, horn timber, stern frame and stem. I re-timbered it, and now I have replanked her. The only diff erence, I guess you’d call it a spiral plank, you know narrow-wide-nar- row, and I strip built it and edged nailed it.” Dan does not have much more time this
winter/spring before he needs to get ready for the upcoming lobster season. “Next win- ter I will start on the inside, get the decks in it. It isn’t going to have a house, it is going to have a spray hood like the originally had. As for the engine, that is up in the air right now. I would like to fi nd a small light weight diesel, like 200-horse or something. The weight of those is not much diff erent than a V-8 gas engine, but I am not worried about
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A view of the Otto Backman built boat being rebuilt by Dan Backman of Winter Harbor.
that right now.” Dan’s great grandfather, Otto’s father,
Herman came over on a sailing ship from Finland. He got on a coaster, whose captain was from either Jonesport or Beals Island, came up here and stayed. Not long after he married Stella Church. Dan added, “Back in those times there was no television so they had a whole bunch of kids. There was Elrica, Fulton, Otto, Raymond [who died of something when he was in his middle 20s] , Rebecca, Donald, Laura Louisa, Benny and Junior. Plus they lost two. Growing up on Beals Island in the early
1900s there were a number of boat shops a young boy could get attracted to. Dan said, “I can remember grandfather saying that he was over round Will Frost boat shop and some of the other ones. He was born in ’03 so probably about 1915 or something he was around the boat shots and started picking up how to build a boat. Benny built boats and he built the most boats out of any of the brothers. Junior built boats. Otto went down and set Junior up to build boats. I don’t know exactly how many he built; I’m going to guess maybe 20. I know Benny built three over at Prospect Harbor. In Winter Harbor he probably built a dozen or more, plus he worked in shipyards. Otto built this one in
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’43 and in 1955 he built one off the same moulds and made it 34 foot x 9 foot. In fact that one is still alive in Massachusetts. The guy that owns it now, he had a lot of work done on it from the bulkhead back. He loves the boat. The one he built in ‘56 was 36 foot and that was a cabin cruiser and she went to Virginia. I have never heard anything about her since. Then in 1962 he built one for Walter Bunker of South Gouldsboro. That was 32 foot by 9. I don’t know if that one is still alive or not. He built four boats that I know about.” Dan’s uncle, Junior, called him up and
asked if he wanted to the moulds and patterns so he went down and got them. He added, “I built one just like his, his was 38 foot, and the one that I built was 39, both 13 foot wide. It took me three years to build that.” She was launched as the ELAINE SUE,
which is the middle names of Dan’s daugh- ters, but now she owned by his son Fred, who renamed her PLAN B. “I put her over Octo- ber 25, 1983,” said Dan. “They just took the engine [a 471] out of her today, it had been in it since ‘83, been rebuilt twice, but it has got about 27,000 hours on it, and she is getting tired. When I took that one down the road
Continued on Page 9.
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