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THE STATE OF MAINE'S BOATING NEWSPAPER Volume 29 Issue 10 October 2016


PRST STD


US Postage Paid Permit, #454 Portland, ME


Maine Coastal News FREE Paying Our Respects to Stevie Carver's BIGGER DIRLS


A fi re claimed Stevie Carver's BIGGER DIRLS while she was sitting on her mooring in West Jonesport. Here she is racing at Winter Harbor in 2015.


WEST JONESPORT – One of the most devastating curves that life can throw at you is a major fi re. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the richest men in the world in the late 1800s, was so concern about the prospect of fi re that when he built his summer cottage, The Breakers, in Newport, Rhode Island the furnace to heat the mansion was a quarter of a mile away and the kitchen was separated from the main house by a thick solid granite wall. For Stevie Carver of Jonesport his


morning started as usual. He went down and checked his boat BIGGER DIRLS on her mooring off of Smith’s Lobster Wharf in West Jonesport. It was fl at calm, but there was a real thick fog settled in the Reach. He called his sternman and told him not come over until he called, hoping that in a hour or so it would break. So it was off to the restau- rant for breakfast. He had not been there long talking with Kenton Fenney when his brother ran through the door saying he had just received a call that his boat was on fi re. They immediately jumped in their vehicles and headed for the wharf. Chris Smith, an owner of the wharf, was in his boat and his stern man asked Stevie “What do you want to do?” to which Stevie replied, “What can we do?” In the short time he had been gone she was a complete blaze from stem to stern. Stevie fi gured she would sink right there. Jason Mills’ brought MAMA’S MON- KEY into the dock and Stevie got on board


and they went out and circled the boat. He described the rolling thick smoke and the extreme heat. What surprised the fi shermen was that the U. S. Coast Guard no longer had any fi refi ghting capability. When the 41 left so did their ability to fi ght a fi re on board a vessel, so now they just take anyone off the boat and let it burn. They came back to the dock and


watched her. Stevie noticed that the fi rst mooring rope was going to burn through and once the second went the boat became a fi reship and headed for ANGELENA, Un- cle Bud Smith’s boat. “We couldn’t let that happened,” said Stevie. Jason ran up over the wharf grabbed an anchor and someone else the chain they use to lock up the lobster car and out they went. Dwight Smith, Jr. got up on the bow and tossed the anchor into the burning hull and they were able to pull her away from any of the other boats in the area. The Jonesport Fire Department now


had a truck at the end of the wharf. They pulled the boat in and the fi re department was able to put it out. By now there were plenty of people all


looking to help. Next they tied a rope to the chain and attached it to the bumper of a truck and dragged the hull up on the beach. Stevie was shocked that she did not sink. He then called a friend of his who came down im- mediately and he lifted the hull up and they were able to load it onto one of Toppin’s boat haulers and away she went to Toppin’s shop


on Route 1. By 1030 all that was left were the skid marks on the beach where they had dragged her up and loaded her on the trailer. Stevie said that he went back out fi shing


a few days after the incident with his brother and others. He said, “I stayed in the stern and worked the bait tub it was like I don’t have to pay attention to everything and right then that was good. I can do it but I would just as soon not.” Stevie then used MAMA’S MONKEY a couple of times as well as his brother’s boat. It was not long after he was off ered the


use of ANGELENA, owned by Uncle Bud. Unfortunately, Bud has not been able to use the boat in awhile. She is a Webber’s Cove 34 and was the fi rst fi berglass boat east of Milbridge arriving in the Reach in 1968. A quick look at her and she looks diff erent and that is because Bud had her trunk shortened up and he moved the bulkhead forward a few years ago. Stevie really liked his Holland 32 and


Kenton called up Holland Boat Shop and asked if he could get a Holland 35. Glenn Holland was on vacation, but he talked with Mike Dassatt about it. When Glenn returned from vacation they told him what had hap- pened to BIGGER DIRLS and asked if he would build a 35. Stevie added, “When I bought the BIGGER DIRLS I tried to talk Glenn into doing a 35 back then, however, Glenn was so busy with 32s and 38s he wasn’t interested in doing it. Stevie fi shes


C o n t e n t s


Publisher's Note Calendar of Events Port Safety Forum 70s Memories


U. S. Navy News Passed over the Bar


4 4 5 6 7 8


Waterfront News Mystic Seaport News


Maine Maritime Museum News Maine Maritime Academy Skeleton Found on Shipwreck DMR News


9 9 9


10 10


Commercial Fishing News


DELA Director's Report DELA's New Offi cers


Misc. Commercial Fishing News Boat Yard News


Hodgdon Yachts News


11 11 12 14 14


Brooklin Boat Yard 91 Friendship Sloop Races


Maritime History


History from the Past Classifi ed Ads


24 27


15 19


inside and with a load of 50 traps on board it takes him only 30 minutes to get into the dock or out to where he fi shes. He respond- ed, “I was going to get the same thing, but I fi gured I’ll ask Glenn just for the hell of it if he might do a 35. Of course Kenton talked with Mike and put a bug in their ears. When I called to talk to Glenn he knew I was calling. He decided if I wanted a 32 he would put me in a new kit in November. That would give me all winter to pick away on it. ‘But, if you are willing to wait,’ he said, ‘I will build you that 35 you always wanted.’ Course this is only a couple of days after the boat went up so that kind of cheered me up a bit. ‘Well I guess I will wait’ and he said he wouldn’t be able to start on it until late winter or early spring at the earliest. Stevie has also fi gured that he will power her with a 550-hp John Deere. Now it is not surprising he already has


the name for the new boat, ANOTHER DIRL. He added, “I can’t get away from DIRLS. It wouldn’t be me.” She will also have a subtitle “Not just any Dirls will do” and because this boat is resurrected from the fl ames she will sport a crest of the Phoenix, the bird that rose from the ashes. Stevie’s father, Calvin grew up over in


the Mill Pond and down on Crumple Island and fi shed his whole life. Most of us came to know Stevie because of his racing, but


Continued on Page 18.


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