You’re driving down Route 24 from Cook’s Corner south through Sebascodegan Island. You pass the turn off for Cundy’s Harbor Road on your left, a big triangle with two entrances and a lot a traffic turning. You keep going. You just missed it.
I asked Dick Pulsifer, a wooden boat builder in Brunswick, if he knew of any boat builders in Harpswell. He said that there was a guy named Johnson with a yard full of boats and junk near the turn for Cundy’s Harbor Road. He’s the only full time boat builder in Harpswell, so I should find him.
After missing it twice, then being unsure which property with boats out front was his, I saw what had to be his workshop.
On the left immediately after the turn to Cundy’s Harbor are two green mailboxes on wooden posts that blend into the trees behind them. There are also dozens of boats and cars strewn about the land just past a row of trees.
I walked up to a guy who was staring at me as I pulled in. He had white powder streaked across his cheek and pants. I said, very timidly, “I’m looking for a guy named Johnson...Are you Johnson?”
Dick had said that the boat Johnson is currently building is about two inches from the wall on either side of the shop. When I pulled in, I thought that might just be true.
The boat Chris Johnson is currently building is a forty-six foot lobster boat made entirely of fiberglass for Gary Hawkes in Cundy’s Harbor. That explains the fine white dust softly coating the walls and ventilation pipes of the shop. It explains why the air is filled with the strong smell of fiberglassing. The smell is closest to a sweet and strong horseradish mixed with chemicals. It is definitely a headache-inducing smell and makes you feel like maybe you shouldn’t be inhaling whatever particles are in the air.
Some fiberglass boats use wood and other materials for parts of the boat, but this one will be absolutely, 100% entirely fiberglass (plus a few screws and adhesives). Fiberglass is a combination of glass fibers and resin that makes a strong and lightweight material. Although a little more expensive, the fiberglass boat will last longer and weigh less than its wooden cousins.
The original Carroll Lowell design for the boat was called the Webco 42’. Then it became the Lowell 43’. For this boat, they added three feet and three inches to the stern of the boat. This boat is different than Chris’ other projects because it is the biggest start to finish boat he has ever built.
After the boat was originally designed, a plug was built. A plug, made of virtually any material though often wood or foam, is a model built to the exact shape and size of the boat. They sand the outside until it is smooth, make sure all the measurements are exact, then mold fiberglass to the outside. When the plug is removed, the mold’s inside is a smooth shape which is used to make the outside of the boat to be built. While a boat will be smooth on the outside and rough, unsanded fiberglass on the inside, the mold is the opposite. This is because the mold’s inside will become the boat’s outside.
Chris bought the mold and has used it to lay up three other boat hulls. The hull actually comes out to forty-two feet and eleven inches long, but they just call it the 43’. Those hulls have gone to other fishermen or boat builders to finish up. Fishermen often buy just the hull then try to finish it on their own. It is pretty rare for one boat builder to build a boat start to finish and for it to go to a local fisherman. Chris’s mold is a huge fixture on the far side of the yard. From the outside, it is rough brown fiberglass with “Lowell 43” spray painted in black at the front. There is a hole in the bottom where the propeller and rudder go. You can stand in the hole and look at the smooth red surface that will hold a boat frame.
When laying up a hull, they first spray the inside of the mold with a gel coat, a mixture of resin and pigment, which will be what you see on the outside of the boat. Next come the structural layers. They layer in fiberglass sheets and resin to shape the hull. For this boat, they also had to lay up the extra three foot section for the stern. When completed, this hull weighs about 6,000 pounds. Although it isn’t that heavy, the hull is too big to move by hand, so Chris hires boat transporters with a large crane. The crane lifts the hull out of the mold and sets it on a trailer. Chris then backs the trailer into his shop, sets the hull on stands, removes the trailer, and builds the rest of the boat.
Easier said than done. By the time this boat is finished, it will weigh about 30,000 pounds. That means Chris has 24,000 pounds worth of work to do. Chris started laying up the hull for Gary’s boat on July first a year ago and hopes to finish it by this winter, a year and a half later.
“That’s a long time for one project. It’s horrible in the winter, looking at the same four walls. At least in the summer, we can open the doors.”
The shop is one large room with fluorescent overhead strips lighting up the thirty feet of open space filled with boat. The boat sits high up because of the shape of the hull and keel below. You can almost stand tall under the bottom where the propeller goes.
“This boat’s late,” Chris says, “but that’s pretty typical of boats. They’re never on time or on budget.”
This boat started with the idea just to make it three feet longer than the model. Then, they thought that they could make it better by raising the sheer line six inches. That means that the side of the boat is six inches higher up. The deck and everything on the top of the boat is also raised that amount, making more space below for a bigger engine room and storage tanks. By raising everything, the boat is also a little higher up and drier. This means it can handle storms better. You can also weigh down the boat more with bigger catches. This is especially helpful given that this boat has an open stern, meaning there is no transom or siding on the back. Fishermen who haul offshore in deeper waters with long strings of traps all together often have an open stern boat so they can slide all their traps right off the back. The raised sheer line does, however, mean that the center of mass of the boat is raised up, and that can affect the handling of the boat.
They have also added “longitudinals” -- lengthwise fiberglass beams running all the way down the boat to add structural strength. The boat was also originally fifteen feet wide, but they decided to cut it right down the middle and add six inches more of width. And that is only the beginning of the design of this boat.
“This is not a cookie cutter boat at all,” Chris says, “Pretty much everything is custom. For the most part, if you step on a lobster boat, you’re not gonna say, ‘Oh, this looks just like another boat.’”
Chris says that when building boats you don’t really envision the whole thing. Sometimes the owner will see the boat in progress and say, “Oh, this space looks like it would be good for this.” Or, “Let’s change this in this way.” Other times, the people working on the boat will see a good design on another boat and say, “Hey, that might work well here.”
After the hull is in the shop, they lay up the shape for the top of the boat on a different mold. This includes the cabin and front deck. This model of boat has a split wheelhouse so Gary can run the boat from outside while he is hauling traps or from inside the cabin when he is steaming for a long distance. The cabin is completely enclosed, which is uncommon in lobster boats, with a door and windows all around. There will also be a day bed inside the cabin because Gary likes to take short naps while out on the water rather than sleep below deck. From inside the cabin, below the front deck there will be a galley kitchen, two berths for crew, and all the hydraulic equipment for hauling traps. There is also currently an empty space. Chris said they might make it into shelves, or maybe a head so they don’t have to go off the stern. The reason for the big boat and below deck accommodations is that Gary goes out fishing for two days at a time, staying out several miles offshore in Casco Bay.
On the back deck, where all the lobster-catching action happens, is a flat open space. For this deck, Chris buys deck panels. They are about four feet on a side, dark gray, and screwed into the frame of the boat. Each panel is made of a high density foam core reinforced with glass fibers for strength and impregnated with resin. There are many different types of fiberglass paneling that can be bought. They have different core densities and can be used for different purposes. One kind has more of a honeycomb internal framework. Because it is mostly air, it can absorb more sound than other types of fiberglass core. Chris uses the honeycomb core over the engine to reduce the sound that gets to the deck where the fishermen are working for many hours during long days.
When I stopped by the shop, they were getting ready to fiberglass the deck. All the deck panels were secured in place and the next step was to cover the entire deck with another layer of fiberglass. This comes in a three foot wide roll of what looks like shiny white fabric. They lay down the fabric in strips across the boat from side to side, coating it in resin along the way. Once cured, the fabric and resin together hold their shape. After the deck is cured, they will add on a coat of rubber to the surface so that equipment doesn’t wear down the fiberglass or slide off the open stern.
Below the back deck are two fuel tanks. One runs along each side of the boat from the cabin all the way back to the stern. Together, this boat can hold up to 700 gallons of diesel fuel. In the middle, there are also three large storage tanks for lobster with three foot square stainless steel covers. Once the rubber is added to the deck, the storage hatch covers will have to be shimmed to the correct height so they are flush with the rubber coating.
Standing on the boat, Chris talks about the boat like it is obvious how fiberglass works. His face is framed by a tan baseball cap with a faded blue visor and plenty of brown scruff. The top of his ears stick out a little from his hat, and his friendly, almost goofy, smile make him nearly resemble a cartoon character. You know Chris is working on something because of his worn and splattered boat shoes and jeans. The most telltale sign, however, is a light blue powder coating on one of his ears.
At a young fifty-one, this is Chris’ second career. When he was in his late teens and early twenties, he worked on some auto repair, then worked for sixteen years as a commercial diver. He then had a heart bypass surgery and thought that a change of career would probably be good. He started finishing off fiberglass boats then started his own business, calling it Northeast Composites, when he was thirty-four.
Chris’ first fiberglass boat building project was a modification of his twenty foot diving boat about eighteen years ago. He cut the boat in half and added six feet of length to the middle. But that was only the initial idea. He then converted the outboard motor to an inboard-outboard, the engine at the back of the boat moved into the hull and was not removable like an outboard. Chris also put in a new center console and longitudinals. Ok, basically everything about the boat was new, except the hull design. The boat is now longer and faster. He said it can go up to fifty miles per hour. Chris had a friend do graphics on the side with the boat’s name, DIVE-IN, in big capital letters. The graphics are colorful and a little flashy, but this is really a work boat. There is even a hot tub at the front. Well, there is a hatch in the front that Chris could fill with water heated by a coil from the engine to warm up after a cold winter dive.
“I didn’t start little,” Chris says, “I don’t do anything halfway.”
To start his boat building business, Chris just went for it. He didn’t have any instruction, but he did get a little information and advice from his uncle.
“I’m one of those guys who’s a quick study. I pick up things like that.”
Once he started working on boats, it kind of rolled into the full time work he does today.
“In a small community, people kind of know what you’re doing. I’ve never advertised. I’ve never looked for work.”
It has now gotten to the point where he has to turn things away. His limiting factor in speed of boat production is labor force. The biggest problem Chris faces is finding people to work. Finding skilled people to work is even harder. He had been hoping for more help on Gary’s boat, but it seems that everyone around is having the same difficulty in finding help. Other delays include waiting for parts to come in, which can sometimes be up to two months.
The outside of his shop flies an American flag and sports intricate shingle work.
“Oh yeah, I did that one day when I was bored. We have a house down on Bailey Island, and I made a compass rose from shingles out there.”
In front of the shop is a collection of pick-up trucks, jet skis, skiffs, and fiberglass molds. Some work, some don’t, and some just need a little repair. Some are his, some are customers, and some he doesn’t even know who they belong too. He grew up on this property and since taking it over has collected “a mixture of crap”.
“Part of building boats is you have a lot of crap.”
On the far side of the property is an old scary barn for storage that you wouldn’t want to go into. In front of that is the Lowell 43’ mold, and in front of that is a twenty foot tall burn pile complete with mattresses and junk plywood. Moving toward the shop are the jet skis Chris uses when he has free time, as well as several that need repair. There is a skiff waiting indefinitely for its owner to pick it up and another one with the engine taken out. Next to that boat is a replica of a kayak used for whaling. He pulled a mold off of it so that he could make kayaks for himself, his son, and a few others.
“Especially if you’re making a few, it makes sense to make your own. Then you can save yourself $10,000 rather than buying them.”
Past a couple more cars and trucks, Chris says, “I have too many automobiles.” Chris has worked on repairing fiberglass cars like Corvettes. He even made a fiberglass shower piece for a Gulfstream camper that had a broken plastic one.
Then there is the shop and to its left, another storage area. This is a more temporary tent-type structure which currently houses DIVE-IN, some strips of fiberglass that look like part of a boat, other boat parts, and a few pieces of lawn equipment. In front of the storage tent are more boats. There is a mold for a twenty-six foot boat and another mold for its top deck.
Again, Chris says there are “too many automobiles.” But he doesn’t say there are too many boats.
In a couple days, Gary’s boat will be moved to a bigger shop, belonging to a guy named Chip Johnson, where there will be more space to finish it up.
When asked if Chris is related to Chip, he said, “I don’t know if I’m related to him or not. I’m related to so many people whose name isn’t even Johnson.” Chris is a seventeenth generation Harpsweller. He has cousins and aunts and uncles everywhere. At this point he doesn’t know most of the people he is related to, and he is probably related to most people in the town one way or another. His family is from Orr’s, Bailey, and Great Islands.
“We’re from this side of Harpswell, the good side.”
At Chip’s, everything else will be done to ready the boat for hauling traps. After all the fiberglassing is done, the top will get sprayed with a gel coat like the outside of the hull. Then they will add the stainless steel. This boat is going to have a lot of stainless steel on deck in any place that gets a lot of wear. On the starboard, or right, side of the boat where they haul traps, the entire rail will be stainless steel with raised steel rails.
Sometimes hauling the traps can wear through the gel coat and even the fiberglass of their hull on the starboard side. On a different boat, Gary wore a hole all the way through the side of the hull.
“Gary might wear through some of the stuff we’re building, but he shouldn’t. If he wears through the metal, he’ll have to find more stainless steel.”
This boat could last the rest of Gary’s life if he takes care of it. And he’s only in his forties now.
Chris says about Gary, “He fishes. That’s what he does.”
I asked Dick Pulsifer, a wooden boat builder in Brunswick, if he knew of any boat builders in Harpswell. He said that there was a guy named Johnson with a yard full of boats and junk near the turn for Cundy’s Harbor Road. He’s the only full time boat builder in Harpswell, so I should find him.
After missing it twice, then being unsure which property with boats out front was his, I saw what had to be his workshop.
On the left immediately after the turn to Cundy’s Harbor are two green mailboxes on wooden posts that blend into the trees behind them. There are also dozens of boats and cars strewn about the land just past a row of trees.
I walked up to a guy who was staring at me as I pulled in. He had white powder streaked across his cheek and pants. I said, very timidly, “I’m looking for a guy named Johnson...Are you Johnson?”
Dick had said that the boat Johnson is currently building is about two inches from the wall on either side of the shop. When I pulled in, I thought that might just be true.
The boat Chris Johnson is currently building is a forty-six foot lobster boat made entirely of fiberglass for Gary Hawkes in Cundy’s Harbor. That explains the fine white dust softly coating the walls and ventilation pipes of the shop. It explains why the air is filled with the strong smell of fiberglassing. The smell is closest to a sweet and strong horseradish mixed with chemicals. It is definitely a headache-inducing smell and makes you feel like maybe you shouldn’t be inhaling whatever particles are in the air.
Some fiberglass boats use wood and other materials for parts of the boat, but this one will be absolutely, 100% entirely fiberglass (plus a few screws and adhesives). Fiberglass is a combination of glass fibers and resin that makes a strong and lightweight material. Although a little more expensive, the fiberglass boat will last longer and weigh less than its wooden cousins.
The original Carroll Lowell design for the boat was called the Webco 42’. Then it became the Lowell 43’. For this boat, they added three feet and three inches to the stern of the boat. This boat is different than Chris’ other projects because it is the biggest start to finish boat he has ever built.
After the boat was originally designed, a plug was built. A plug, made of virtually any material though often wood or foam, is a model built to the exact shape and size of the boat. They sand the outside until it is smooth, make sure all the measurements are exact, then mold fiberglass to the outside. When the plug is removed, the mold’s inside is a smooth shape which is used to make the outside of the boat to be built. While a boat will be smooth on the outside and rough, unsanded fiberglass on the inside, the mold is the opposite. This is because the mold’s inside will become the boat’s outside.
Chris bought the mold and has used it to lay up three other boat hulls. The hull actually comes out to forty-two feet and eleven inches long, but they just call it the 43’. Those hulls have gone to other fishermen or boat builders to finish up. Fishermen often buy just the hull then try to finish it on their own. It is pretty rare for one boat builder to build a boat start to finish and for it to go to a local fisherman. Chris’s mold is a huge fixture on the far side of the yard. From the outside, it is rough brown fiberglass with “Lowell 43” spray painted in black at the front. There is a hole in the bottom where the propeller and rudder go. You can stand in the hole and look at the smooth red surface that will hold a boat frame.
When laying up a hull, they first spray the inside of the mold with a gel coat, a mixture of resin and pigment, which will be what you see on the outside of the boat. Next come the structural layers. They layer in fiberglass sheets and resin to shape the hull. For this boat, they also had to lay up the extra three foot section for the stern. When completed, this hull weighs about 6,000 pounds. Although it isn’t that heavy, the hull is too big to move by hand, so Chris hires boat transporters with a large crane. The crane lifts the hull out of the mold and sets it on a trailer. Chris then backs the trailer into his shop, sets the hull on stands, removes the trailer, and builds the rest of the boat.
Easier said than done. By the time this boat is finished, it will weigh about 30,000 pounds. That means Chris has 24,000 pounds worth of work to do. Chris started laying up the hull for Gary’s boat on July first a year ago and hopes to finish it by this winter, a year and a half later.
“That’s a long time for one project. It’s horrible in the winter, looking at the same four walls. At least in the summer, we can open the doors.”
The shop is one large room with fluorescent overhead strips lighting up the thirty feet of open space filled with boat. The boat sits high up because of the shape of the hull and keel below. You can almost stand tall under the bottom where the propeller goes.
“This boat’s late,” Chris says, “but that’s pretty typical of boats. They’re never on time or on budget.”
This boat started with the idea just to make it three feet longer than the model. Then, they thought that they could make it better by raising the sheer line six inches. That means that the side of the boat is six inches higher up. The deck and everything on the top of the boat is also raised that amount, making more space below for a bigger engine room and storage tanks. By raising everything, the boat is also a little higher up and drier. This means it can handle storms better. You can also weigh down the boat more with bigger catches. This is especially helpful given that this boat has an open stern, meaning there is no transom or siding on the back. Fishermen who haul offshore in deeper waters with long strings of traps all together often have an open stern boat so they can slide all their traps right off the back. The raised sheer line does, however, mean that the center of mass of the boat is raised up, and that can affect the handling of the boat.
They have also added “longitudinals” -- lengthwise fiberglass beams running all the way down the boat to add structural strength. The boat was also originally fifteen feet wide, but they decided to cut it right down the middle and add six inches more of width. And that is only the beginning of the design of this boat.
“This is not a cookie cutter boat at all,” Chris says, “Pretty much everything is custom. For the most part, if you step on a lobster boat, you’re not gonna say, ‘Oh, this looks just like another boat.’”
Chris says that when building boats you don’t really envision the whole thing. Sometimes the owner will see the boat in progress and say, “Oh, this space looks like it would be good for this.” Or, “Let’s change this in this way.” Other times, the people working on the boat will see a good design on another boat and say, “Hey, that might work well here.”
After the hull is in the shop, they lay up the shape for the top of the boat on a different mold. This includes the cabin and front deck. This model of boat has a split wheelhouse so Gary can run the boat from outside while he is hauling traps or from inside the cabin when he is steaming for a long distance. The cabin is completely enclosed, which is uncommon in lobster boats, with a door and windows all around. There will also be a day bed inside the cabin because Gary likes to take short naps while out on the water rather than sleep below deck. From inside the cabin, below the front deck there will be a galley kitchen, two berths for crew, and all the hydraulic equipment for hauling traps. There is also currently an empty space. Chris said they might make it into shelves, or maybe a head so they don’t have to go off the stern. The reason for the big boat and below deck accommodations is that Gary goes out fishing for two days at a time, staying out several miles offshore in Casco Bay.
On the back deck, where all the lobster-catching action happens, is a flat open space. For this deck, Chris buys deck panels. They are about four feet on a side, dark gray, and screwed into the frame of the boat. Each panel is made of a high density foam core reinforced with glass fibers for strength and impregnated with resin. There are many different types of fiberglass paneling that can be bought. They have different core densities and can be used for different purposes. One kind has more of a honeycomb internal framework. Because it is mostly air, it can absorb more sound than other types of fiberglass core. Chris uses the honeycomb core over the engine to reduce the sound that gets to the deck where the fishermen are working for many hours during long days.
When I stopped by the shop, they were getting ready to fiberglass the deck. All the deck panels were secured in place and the next step was to cover the entire deck with another layer of fiberglass. This comes in a three foot wide roll of what looks like shiny white fabric. They lay down the fabric in strips across the boat from side to side, coating it in resin along the way. Once cured, the fabric and resin together hold their shape. After the deck is cured, they will add on a coat of rubber to the surface so that equipment doesn’t wear down the fiberglass or slide off the open stern.
Below the back deck are two fuel tanks. One runs along each side of the boat from the cabin all the way back to the stern. Together, this boat can hold up to 700 gallons of diesel fuel. In the middle, there are also three large storage tanks for lobster with three foot square stainless steel covers. Once the rubber is added to the deck, the storage hatch covers will have to be shimmed to the correct height so they are flush with the rubber coating.
Standing on the boat, Chris talks about the boat like it is obvious how fiberglass works. His face is framed by a tan baseball cap with a faded blue visor and plenty of brown scruff. The top of his ears stick out a little from his hat, and his friendly, almost goofy, smile make him nearly resemble a cartoon character. You know Chris is working on something because of his worn and splattered boat shoes and jeans. The most telltale sign, however, is a light blue powder coating on one of his ears.
At a young fifty-one, this is Chris’ second career. When he was in his late teens and early twenties, he worked on some auto repair, then worked for sixteen years as a commercial diver. He then had a heart bypass surgery and thought that a change of career would probably be good. He started finishing off fiberglass boats then started his own business, calling it Northeast Composites, when he was thirty-four.
Chris’ first fiberglass boat building project was a modification of his twenty foot diving boat about eighteen years ago. He cut the boat in half and added six feet of length to the middle. But that was only the initial idea. He then converted the outboard motor to an inboard-outboard, the engine at the back of the boat moved into the hull and was not removable like an outboard. Chris also put in a new center console and longitudinals. Ok, basically everything about the boat was new, except the hull design. The boat is now longer and faster. He said it can go up to fifty miles per hour. Chris had a friend do graphics on the side with the boat’s name, DIVE-IN, in big capital letters. The graphics are colorful and a little flashy, but this is really a work boat. There is even a hot tub at the front. Well, there is a hatch in the front that Chris could fill with water heated by a coil from the engine to warm up after a cold winter dive.
“I didn’t start little,” Chris says, “I don’t do anything halfway.”
To start his boat building business, Chris just went for it. He didn’t have any instruction, but he did get a little information and advice from his uncle.
“I’m one of those guys who’s a quick study. I pick up things like that.”
Once he started working on boats, it kind of rolled into the full time work he does today.
“In a small community, people kind of know what you’re doing. I’ve never advertised. I’ve never looked for work.”
It has now gotten to the point where he has to turn things away. His limiting factor in speed of boat production is labor force. The biggest problem Chris faces is finding people to work. Finding skilled people to work is even harder. He had been hoping for more help on Gary’s boat, but it seems that everyone around is having the same difficulty in finding help. Other delays include waiting for parts to come in, which can sometimes be up to two months.
The outside of his shop flies an American flag and sports intricate shingle work.
“Oh yeah, I did that one day when I was bored. We have a house down on Bailey Island, and I made a compass rose from shingles out there.”
In front of the shop is a collection of pick-up trucks, jet skis, skiffs, and fiberglass molds. Some work, some don’t, and some just need a little repair. Some are his, some are customers, and some he doesn’t even know who they belong too. He grew up on this property and since taking it over has collected “a mixture of crap”.
“Part of building boats is you have a lot of crap.”
On the far side of the property is an old scary barn for storage that you wouldn’t want to go into. In front of that is the Lowell 43’ mold, and in front of that is a twenty foot tall burn pile complete with mattresses and junk plywood. Moving toward the shop are the jet skis Chris uses when he has free time, as well as several that need repair. There is a skiff waiting indefinitely for its owner to pick it up and another one with the engine taken out. Next to that boat is a replica of a kayak used for whaling. He pulled a mold off of it so that he could make kayaks for himself, his son, and a few others.
“Especially if you’re making a few, it makes sense to make your own. Then you can save yourself $10,000 rather than buying them.”
Past a couple more cars and trucks, Chris says, “I have too many automobiles.” Chris has worked on repairing fiberglass cars like Corvettes. He even made a fiberglass shower piece for a Gulfstream camper that had a broken plastic one.
Then there is the shop and to its left, another storage area. This is a more temporary tent-type structure which currently houses DIVE-IN, some strips of fiberglass that look like part of a boat, other boat parts, and a few pieces of lawn equipment. In front of the storage tent are more boats. There is a mold for a twenty-six foot boat and another mold for its top deck.
Again, Chris says there are “too many automobiles.” But he doesn’t say there are too many boats.
In a couple days, Gary’s boat will be moved to a bigger shop, belonging to a guy named Chip Johnson, where there will be more space to finish it up.
When asked if Chris is related to Chip, he said, “I don’t know if I’m related to him or not. I’m related to so many people whose name isn’t even Johnson.” Chris is a seventeenth generation Harpsweller. He has cousins and aunts and uncles everywhere. At this point he doesn’t know most of the people he is related to, and he is probably related to most people in the town one way or another. His family is from Orr’s, Bailey, and Great Islands.
“We’re from this side of Harpswell, the good side.”
At Chip’s, everything else will be done to ready the boat for hauling traps. After all the fiberglassing is done, the top will get sprayed with a gel coat like the outside of the hull. Then they will add the stainless steel. This boat is going to have a lot of stainless steel on deck in any place that gets a lot of wear. On the starboard, or right, side of the boat where they haul traps, the entire rail will be stainless steel with raised steel rails.
Sometimes hauling the traps can wear through the gel coat and even the fiberglass of their hull on the starboard side. On a different boat, Gary wore a hole all the way through the side of the hull.
“Gary might wear through some of the stuff we’re building, but he shouldn’t. If he wears through the metal, he’ll have to find more stainless steel.”
This boat could last the rest of Gary’s life if he takes care of it. And he’s only in his forties now.
Chris says about Gary, “He fishes. That’s what he does.”