Isaac Beal’s Christopher Notches Seven Years Straight
by Nancy Beal

The Christopher racing. Some have said it is the most photographed lobster boat in Maine. Isaac Beal built it with his father Mariner in 1976. His father fished it for three years before Isaac. He has raced the 28' wood boat on and off over the years and now runs a 502 Chevy to get it over the finishline first.

Isaac Beal of Beals Island has done what no other lobster boat racer has done since the class and point system was introduced in 1996: he has won all seven years that he raced (1999 through this year) in his division (Gas Class C). In achieving this record, he has not done what many other successful racers have done, worked one boat and raced another, or raced a boat used in weekend fishing, but has perpetuated the lobster boat racing tradition that preceded what takes place today: he uses an old wooden lobster boat that he and his father, Mariner “Lovey” Beal, built in 1976, the same boat that he uses to go to haul every day of his full-time fishing life.

Beal personifies other coastal Maine traditions as well. Born in Alley’s Bay in 1941 in a rambling farmhouse next door to the modern home in which he now lives, he walked to school for the first five years to one of the island’s three neighborhood one-room schools. Starting in sixth grade, he traveled to the head of the island in a school bus that consisted of a panel truck with no rear doors and a board over two crates for a seat. Eventually, the private contractors who then provided school transportation secured an old blue bus from a navy base.

In addition to becoming a successful racer, Beal has parlayed his background into (right after high school) building weirs in Pigeon Hill, returning home to build boats with his father, while always lobster fishing and supporting his family of seven: wife Eva, sons Wyatt, Timmy, and Christopher, and daughters Heidi and Kelly. In the early 1980s, he moved from herring seining into the up-and-coming aquaculture industry. For 13 years, Beal managed two salmon farms in Beals’ Eastern Bay, while Eva oversaw the fish plant where salmon were processed for market. Today, in addition to the lobster fishing that has always been a mainstay of his life, he runs a mooring business with a barge and crane that he uses to both produce and set new moorings and to provide maintenance for those already in the water.

Isaac Beal in his Beals home recently. Born in the farmhouse next door, he has built boats, fished, managed a salmon farm, and built weirs. He runs a mooring business and helped his town organize and build a landing and marina. Photo: Nancy Beal

Isaac has also helped his town and his fellow fishermen in the creation of a boat landing in Alley’s Bay. The small marina, consisting of a large ramp and a small one for outboards and recreational craft, plus an expansive beach bought separately by the town, became operational approximately 18 months ago, and was spearheaded by Beal. He went door-to-door to fishing families displaying plans drawn by a seasonal resident/architect, Harry Merritt, soliciting support for the project. His efforts not only garnered unanimous backing for the pier, but prompted many individuals to make financial donations that helped provide the match required by the grants that paid for construction.

Retire or Keep Racing?
That marina is the start of every race that Beal enters (six this year). He learned after the first year that steaming to each venue is both expensive in fuel and in time consumption and, since 2000, has trailed the Christopher from the Alley’s Bay marina to wherever the race is being held. He doesn’t have a special mechanic like some racers

(“I only take Eva,” he quips), although he was thankful for help from fellow Moosabeckers Kenton Feeney and Ellery Merchant at Stonington this year, where a rocker arm fell off and he nevertheless raced (and won) on seven cylinders. He also credits the committee that manages the races for the time and effort that they put in.

This year’s race at Searsport was Beal’s 100th on the point circuit. He says he had planned to quit after 2003, but his son, Wyatt, coaxed him into staying on so that they could travel in company. He also says he remains competitive because the Christopher is “special:” built with his father, on their model, and competitive. The Christopher is 28 feet long and nine wide. Wyatt’s Moxie was built on the same model the following year, 1977, and won Gas D this year. The father-son duo often faced off in the gas free-for-alls.)

Christopher hasn’t seen much time on the bank since being launched 29 years ago. While Isaac was mussel dragging for 12 years in the fiberglass Old Salt, his son Timmy used her occasionally. But Beal is leaning toward retiring her as a racer. Her second Chevy 502 stock motor (the first went in in 1999 when he decided to put her into racing) has 59 races on it. “She’s gotta be getting’ tired,” he says of that power plant. Still, his boys want to build one more boat with him. “If I last a little while,” says the so-far unbeatable racer, “I probably will.”