April 2018 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 27. B D C I
that,” said Carroll, “You want white oak.” “Oh no I don’t,” Bob said. “I don’t want no white oak in nowhere near me at all.” So Bob took his keel and all his dead-
wood home and put her all together. “Carroll was surprised and so wasn’t I, but anyway I built her myself.” Bob used a hand plane that Carroll
Lowell sharpened for him. “When I built the Maybe, when I started this business, boy you do some planing. And I still used that wooden plane. I got three 55-gallon barrels [barls] of shavings when I stripped her under her stern like that. And I thought, I can’t do this... So I went to town and bought one of them little baby power planers, and got to using that. I still got the old wooden plane to home on my bench in my garage, I used it for special occasions. I got an idea now it’s getting quite rusty ‘cause it’s been there a loooong time.” Due to a lack of funds, Bob used galvanized nails for fastening. “When I built my boat, I put a sternpost
in her.. like they always did, for the cutlass bearing [“bar-in”] to set on.” But at fi rst she vibrated heavily. “We hauled her out, and we done everything, we opened up the shaft, you know. We spun it by hand to make sure everything would roll free, and we couldn’t fi nd it.” They put her back in the water, but the stern would shake all over. “One day I got mad. I put her ashore to
home and grounded her. I got under there with a wood chisel and a hammer, and I’m gonna tell ya, I done some chopping. And I chopped two gouges, just like this, right up the side, so that the sternpost was almost touching... Put her over, boy, you never know the wheel was turning.” “That boat I built, I had a 5-bladed pro-
peller on her. I went up to Bustin's Island and I raced Merganser when [Bud Nickerson] had her… We went right side by side, we couldn't get away from each other.” Bob went home and told his cousin, “I
got a brand new propeller coming, 4-bladed 20-17…” Joe said, “If you put that on there, don't you go back to Bustins and beat the Merganser! I'll sink your boat if you do!” Bob says, “I never went back. He meant it! I mean, Merganser was the talking thing of Chebeague all the years that we had her.” Bob and his son Waynr ran the Maybe in
the lobsterboat races. She would go 46 miles per hour with a “souped up" 502 truck en- gine, 800 hp. “I cleaned house down there… I got 20 trophies to home in a cupboard. I
got that number 1 in the living room sitting there. I got some 1s but they're smaller, when we all had them little V8 engines you know. I got some 1s and 2s and 3s. But, I got that Class 1 to home in the living room setting right up since 2002. “I got the picture of her, 3/4 out of
water, way back by the hauling house in the aft, the only thing that’s in the water of that 33 foot boat is just the hauling house back to the stern, the rest of it’s out of the water, sitting just as fl at as you never wanna see anything fl at. And we were going 46 miles an hour with her. I'd like to had the engine I got now, that 800 hp in the Merganser, and compare it.” A few years ago, Bob was turning over
the engine - “I keep rolling her over every year make sure she don’t stick. 1974 327 Chevy, still in her right today.” He thought he would check out the timbers. “So I took my big light, looking past the reverse gear down into the stern. One side’s got 3 cracked timbers. Not broke off , just starting to peel, you know how they do… there’s 3 on one side and 2 on the other side that just started to peel. They ain’t broke. And that was it.” Of all the timbers from the stem to the stern, only the last 3 on either side have any worn places.
“That grey oak.. she’s got some age on
her, we used her a lot. Me and Peter would go down back of Green Island and haul when it’s choppy down there and it never seemed to bother her. I used her for years outside lobstering, she was strong. But now them galvanized nails, they start getting bad. But she’s still in one piece.” “I had a great time but I didn’t realize
I knew how to do it... when I owned the Merganser, I never ever would’ve sold her, if I’d ever known then what I know today.” BUILDING ANOTHER BOAT - 2005 In 2005, Bob built a 35’ boat upside
down, out of plywood and epoxy. This boat was also built by sight. “No boards, no planks, no nothing, just built it by eyesight upside down and got it going 46 miles an hour.” Bob named her the Dream because one night he dreamed about building her and winning the lobsterboat races. “West System and plywood... I used 55
gallons of West System on her hull. Walter Greene sold it to me, half price. I done the hauling house inside and out with it. Every- thing, she’s all completely covered with it. She ain’t gonna rot apart, water can’t get into her.”
FOR SALE at THE LANDING SCHOOL ALDEN 21
YANKEE TENDER ARUNDEL 19 He built the boat so that the cabin could
be removed easily, for engine changes. “‘Cause see we got a 75 foot hydraulic crane over there...when I wanna change that big engine... I could go and get my screw- driver, and take all the steel screws right out of the oak, you know ‘cause I used them square-headed screws. I could back em right out. I didn’t fasten my plywood to the rail, so that I could pick the house up, undo my hydraulic steering gear, my throttle and stuff like that. Then I could pick the house right off , set it aside, change my engine, and set my hauling house back on the boat. I could do it all alone.” On the inside, Bob put 2 timbers from
the front of the engine to the stern, fastened the stern to the timbers, and the engine sits on the bedding. “If you open her up quick - I broke off 4 galvanized ½” lag bolts with that engine. By opening her up quick. Then I had to turn around, put her all back, I put 6 that time in her, and that helped. She had so much thrust to her you know.” His son Wayne and mechanic Dave
Stevens were told to tie themselves in when they went for a ride. When Bob accelerated, a can sitting in the front of the hauling house would fl y 17 feet to the stern. “Now you know that’s some thrust! When you do that boy.”
He used the engine from the Maybe to
put in the Dream, hoping Dream would go faster. “But I went exactly the same, and the UFO beat me.” [Uncle’s UFO] “But then after we raced her, I got a
little too much bilge in her. Merganser’d go straight, and that one I built’d go straight. This one, she’d get her bow up so I couldn’t quite see over her good. So I hauled her up, and turned her bottom up, and cut the bilge out of her. Put it all back in her, put the houses back, the engine back, and that was the end of her. And I got sick. But time runs out on you after awhile.”
RETIREMENT In 2012, Bob didn’t realize that some
problems with his pancreas were creeping up on him. “That summer, September, I had a nervous breakdown. In the afternoon,” Bob
said. One Sunday Bob and Bev and had gone for a drive, and got back home about and hour and 45 minutes before the fi nal ferry of the day. Bob was feeling weak, unwell, and panicky; he told Bev, “I've GOT to get off the island. I don't want to see nobody, I don't wanna be on the island, I don't wanna see no boats, I want to get where I can talk to somebody. I got to get away from this island. All they are to it.” Bob says, “I just couldn't stay there. I
went through a depression, you know what I mean? And I give her an hour to pack, hour and 15 minutes, and we made the 5:00 boat.” He and Bev came to live with their daughter in Yarmouth. “Over here. ... I don't see no lobster boats, I don't see nothing that even reminds me of the water, in a way of speaking. There's always something going on here. So I kinda relaxed.” It turned out Bob was pretty sick. “I had
infective pancreas and some ulcers... And I had to have stents in March and everything. The doctor said don’t go work. So I had to retire, at 81. The next March I went back with a double infection of the same things, and then I had stones to speak of, and they had to put stitches in my stomach, shovel the stones out, and open up the drains and stuff ... Actually I went down to 130 pounds. I was headed out the back door when we come over here. So you see that all worked against me.” By the time we spoke with him in late
2013, Bob was more interested in boats again. “Now I can't bear to look at one, in a way of speaking, because I wanna be there! But the doctor said not to work at all.” Bob and Bev have since moved back to the island and are enjoying retirement there. Bob can frequently be found telling stories at Che- beague Island Boat Yard. Thanks for the help of Nancy Olney
and Kristen Dyer-Buxbaum in writing this article.
Maine Coastal News is now entirely online:
www.mainescoast.com
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