Race Buzz 2011

by Brenda Tredwell

With shifting trends within the lobster industry, where world market and regulation concerns prevail, there is an untouched tradition that is local, and that is – lobster boat racing. Boat and fuel prices remain high. Still, we race.

Half the enticement is the rumor of stashed hulls in-progress, pull-truck prodigies from the mid-west, or voodoo alchemy set forth by Hell’s Angels gurus.

David Osgood of Vinalhaven said it best as a veteran of lobsterboat racing, and the son of Alfred Osgood (Starlight Express). He picked up a quote from Pro-wrestling that he feels puts lobster boat racing – in a nut-shell. ‘Win if you can, lose if you must – but always cheat.”

Things wouldn’t be right – or fun – if certain presences weren’t haunting the docks with vats of Mississippi Moonshine, or jacking already fast engines. Traditionalists maintain that anyone with a fat bankroll can buy horsepower, but the roots of racing is in hull design, and proportionate balance between hull and horsepower, engine placement, rudder, wheel – there’s more to it than plunking a monster motor on the engine bed, and hitting it with a nitrous boost.

Mike Dassatt of Holland Boat Shop, Belfast, recalls working out issues on the Red Baron in order to gain notorious speed. “With Red Baron, the faster the boat went, it slowed the steering down, because the boat reacted quicker at higher speed, the rudder caught water differently. We shaved some off the tail, of the rudder, but did it equally, by proportion. Because of that balance, during a U-turn going 55 mph at Stonington a few years back, things stayed together. Horsepower to weight ratio…there’s a certain formula.”

Dassatt describes his working lobster boat as “15,000 pounds – dry, built like a bottle-ass spider, but it’s a damned good work boat. With a 300 HP (engine) doing 30mph - from a Yanmar, out of the box, that’s not bad.” Dassatt recalled his brother-in-law, Glen Holland acknowledged that while well designed workboats are admired, there is a huge spectator attraction to jazzed engines. Holland said before a race, “People aren’t going up there to see a diesel smoke screen, they’re going to see two big noisy pipes.” Dassatt joked, “If you put enough horsepower in a bathtub, you can make it go.”

Pre-season rumors….While it’s been said “All the big guns are holding out till the 4th to run,” Starlight Express plans to enjoy the racing in Rockland. A V-12 Allison engine, which powered WWII fighter planes and, reportedly, Rolls Royce motorcars, was rumored to have fallen into the hands of Keith Otis (First Team – Searsport) the info was inaccurate. While Travis Otis confirmed, “We have two Packard engines, experimental models from the 1940’s…this model has more power, more speed, it was designed for patrol boats in the Pacific.” According to Travis, the Packards are “8 feet long, 2,500 cubic inches, 1,800 HP (2,800 rpm) The engines are more powerful than those installed in Stevie Johnson’s Kathleen II – which came right out of a PT boat.” First Team has not installed a new engine.

After Ryan Post of Rockland lost Instigator in an April 17th storm, he has supposedly gotten another Wayne Beal 40', installed a 700 HP Volvo diesel, and could make a few races this season.

Galen Alley ran Foolish Pleasure down the course alone last season, un-contested. The thirst for competition allegedly led him to drop a 496 into the formerly de-commissioned Lorna R so Rocky Alley could compete in the 500 cubic-inch class. On June 16th, Galen’s Foolish Pleasure was hauled out and his mechanic, Bob Stevens of Augusta, was on board working on Alley’s 638 Merlin engine.

Rocky Alley had Lorna R hauled out on the other side of the shop. He said he’d worked on the boat, which he will race. “All cedar decks, floors, and a new house. The way she was built in 1972. I’d just like to see her go like the old man had her going.” The engine is a 496 Chevy. Galen Alley’s Foolish Pleasure was built from molds cast out by Ernest Libby, Jr. The original builder was Dick Alley, their father.

Dixon Smith installed a 750 Iveco engine in Size Matters last winter. Smith’s 41' Libby was built in 2006.

Underdog was designed by Ernest Libby, Jr., who assumed that after he built her, “Somebody will buy it and fish down the bay with it.” Ellery Alley, owner of the Libby 29' acquired the Camel II’s engine last season. According to Alley, “We sent her out to the dyno, and it ended up getting smoked.” Speed-O-Motion in California put together a new 605 cubic inch engine, described by Alley. “A Pro Dat block, Littlefield blower, a magneto on it, 1,700 HP. The former engine was dubbed “sweet Polly Purebred” after the Underdog cartoon. This one is the boogie man. “She’s pretty much what she is,” declares Alley, while surveying the boat. “We’ll see how the boogie man does.”

The Irene Renee – the sistership to Don Drisko’s Merganser is in the shop at H&H. The wooden Calvin Beal, Jr. lobsterboat is being glassed over.

Jeanine Beal confirmed that the 30' plug built by Calvin Beal, Jr. is just about ready for delivery to Stewart Workman’s shop in Lamoine. The CB-30 and other designs by Calvin, plus Ernest Libby, Jr.’s Young Brothers molds are owned by SW. Libby’s last hull from the Young Brothers yard in Corea, Kathryn Rose, went to a lobsterman fishing from Marblehead, MA.

Troy Alley is a week away from launching Double-Taker, a 31' he designed and built himself. “I expect to get between 55 and 60 mph from her,” said Alley. “Lord only knows....” Alley grew up on Beals, in boatshops. “I originally wanted to name her Millenium Falcon, after…the fastest ship in the universe (Star Trek) but I lost that one. We took a vote….”