Every Fisherman Has a Story to Tell and Every Story is Different: Stonington, Maine Fisherman Frank Gotwals, Part III: 1986-2004

by Sandra Dinsmore

Frank Gotwals said he kept the Webber’s Cove 34, which he named Sea Jay, because it was paid for and because he was making a living with it. He considered investing in a bigger boat, but wanted the option of pursuing his music. “Taking on the financial obligation of a new boat would have limited that option,” he said, “so I stuck with the boat I had and replaced the gas engine with a Cummins diesel in 1986 or 1987.”

For most of the 1990s Gotwals combined fishing in spring, summer, and fall with performing in winter. For that he traveled up and down the East Coast between Maine and New Orleans, but most frequently between Maine and Virginia. “Sometimes I’d drive 5,000 miles in three weeks,” he noted, “and I played about 20 different shows in that time.”

Over the seven or eight winters that Gotwals spent on the road, his performances drew increasingly larger audiences. He also received royalty checks because other performers recorded a few songs he had written and because a couple of his songs were used in documentaries.

“I recorded my first CD the winter of 1994-1995 and started doing solo performances that winter,” Gotwals recalled, adding that he also fished that winter. “The music just grew, and I recorded every two years.” He said, “I did my last recording in 2000-2001. Gotwals also claimed to have developed a songwriting program for students almost by accident, so along with fishing and performing regularly, he did quite a few school residencies.

But in 2003 he finally decided that much as he liked performing, he had had enough of traveling. “It was exhausting,” he said, “and I missed being home.” Although he tried to keep his trips to no longer than two weeks, he said the longest he was ever away at one time was three weeks.

Gotwals still writes music and performs, but he keeps it local. He plays with an acoustic group, Archipelago, and a jazz group, Isle of Jazz, and he and Donna enjoy gardening. They grow all kinds of vegetables, fruit, and berries, along with flowers. Thirty-four years after they met and married, their children grown and married with children of their own, Gotwals and McDonald are still together.

“Donna and I are both pretty independent people,” Gotwals said. “We’ve somehow managed to be supportive of each other and still give each other the space to be ourselves. He pointed out, “All the time I was traveling and playing, she hung in there and was always here when I came home.” But once he was no longer traveling, Gotwals thought the time had come for a project he had long considered.

Gotwals and Stonington boat designer and builder Peter Buxton, friends since the 1970s, had talked for over a year about having Buxton design and build a 36-foot wooden fishing boat for Gotwals, and letting Gotwals help build it. “I was also at the point where [Sea Jay] was ready for some work,” the fisherman said, “so I decided I might as well put that money towards a new one. The fishery has also changed dramatically,” Gotwals explained, “and I felt a bigger boat would be a good investment. No regrets,” he added. “It’s worked out really well.

“I was interested in being involved in the building process,” Gotwals continued. “We felt we could work well together. Pete has a real artistic streak,” he observed; “ I knew he would do a great job. After discussing and exploring some possibilities, I said I would feel comfortable having Pete design the boat.”

Buxton, a graduate of the Eastport Boatbuilding School, had been trained to build wooden boats. “I had done many wooden boat projects,” he said, “but I had not yet designed and built one on my own.”

After graduating in 1982, Buxton fished till 1985, and then spent the next eight years working for Wade Dow at his Bridges Point Boatyard in Brooklin. Even though he worked on fiberglass boats at Dow’s, Buxton said, “The education that I got from Wade in all aspects of boatbuilding was absolutely invaluable.” But fiberglass was in style, and Buxton continued working with it until about 2002, when he decided to, as he said, “Make a go of [working in wood].

But Buxton works alone. He was concerned about working with another person. “It’s not just anybody I would do that with,” he said, “to let him come in and work with me as closely as that. But Frank understood and was as good to work with as if I were paying him, not the other way around.” And although Buxton is also rebuilding a hundred-year-old sailboat, he said, “Once I started on one of Frank’s boats, I worked full time on it till it was done.”

One of the most fascinating parts of building a wooden boat is the process of lofting: taking the scale drawings and expanding them to a full size drawing. This step allows the builder to make the patterns and molds necessary to build a wooden hull. A plywood lofting platform large enough to accept the drawings was built on top of the cement floor of Buxton’s 48 by 50 by 18 boat shop. The platform was then painted white so the drawn lines would be easily visible. This platform would also serve as a working surface on which to build the boat. As Sue Buxton said, “It’s amazing to watch.”

If you go to Buxton’s website (www.buxtonboats.com), the first picture you see is the design of the Gotwals boat on paper. The second picture is of one of the finished parts of the boat placed directly on the full scale drawing of Buxton’s design. Buxton and Gotwals spent a good deal of time on their knees, measuring and drawing the entire design. They then made each piece of the molds and patterns from those drawings.

Gotwals then took up the story. “We worked together throughout the winter and [by spring of the 2004 fishing season], he recalled, “We had the boat planked and the topsides well under way.” He then went fishing. After hauling and on the occasional day off, he helped Buxton work on the boat. They launched Seahawk in October 2004.
Seahawk is 36 feet long and 12 feet, 8 inches wide, which is wide enough to fit four traps comfortably across the platform at the stern. Gotwals said, “It is a very comfortable boat to work out of for its size.”

A sternman, before fishing with Gotwals, had said he thought Gotwals was crazy to build a wooden boat. But after working on Seahawk for just a couple of days, he said he knew why Gotwals had [chosen wood]: It was the most comfortable boat he had worked on. Gotwals agreed saying, “It’s really been a great boat.” www.buxtonboats.com

Part IV will be published in the December 2013 issue.