Tag Archives: Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association
In Maine, a Father-Daughter Team Wins a Lobster Boat Race
Dozens of boats zipped across Casco Bay during the Maine Lobster Boat Races on Saturday. Only one had a purple bottom. That boat, a 32-footer with a powerful diesel engine, belonged to Jeremy Beal, 45, a large, soft-spoken man who comes from a long line of boat builders and lobstermen. “See, I grew up right in it,” he said between drags of a cigarette while leaning against the rail of his boat on the evening before the big race. For decades, Mr. Beal’s father, Wayne Beal, and an uncle, Calvin Beal, have built boats used by commercial fishers up and down the Maine coast. After years spent learning the family trade, Jeremy took over his dad’s business, Wayne Beal’s Boat Shop, in Jonesport, a seaside town more than 200 miles northeast of Portland. “I bought the boat off my father,” Mr. Beal said. “It was his last power boat. He’s retired out of the boat shop. I won’t sell the boat unless I have to. Just for the fact that it was my dad’s.” Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:33
Speed on the water!: The Charlie Begin Memorial Lobster Boat Races
The official start to Maine’s lobster boat racing season happens every year in Boothbay Harbor over Father’s Day weekend. This year, that date is Saturday, June 15. In 2005, the race event became the Charlie Begin Memorial Lobster Boat Races, in honor of the beloved native lobsterman and racing participant. These races have been thrilling lobstermen, their passengers and spectators since the official start in 1964. Over the past 10 years or so, 35-45 boats have participated from all over the coast. Race categories include gas classes based on length and cubic inches, diesel classes based on horsepower and length, a wooden boat race, gas and diesel free-for-alls, and four races just for Boothbay Region boats, including Fastest Working Lobster Boat. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:41
Wild Wild West sets new record at Stonington lobster boat races
Lobstermen put away the traps and opened the throttles this weekend at the Stonington lobster boat races. About 75 boats participated in the races this year, with a strong local presence and a contingent for Vinalhaven and North Haven, said Jon Johansen, the president of the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association. Cameron Crawford’s Wild Wild West, always a top contender at the races, clocked 61.6 mph, setting a new diesel record by about 1 mph, en route to first place in the diesel free for all, Johansen said. >click to read< 08:59
Choppy waters limit crowd, times at Bass Harbor lobster boat races
More than three dozen lobstermen battled it out in Bass Harbor this past weekend as part of the annual lobster boat races, but perhaps their toughest competitor was race day’s choppy waters. Conditions were a little rougher than ideal, but nothing the boats couldn’t handle, said Jon Johansen, the president of the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association. Thirty-seven boats from across the region showed up, about half of what the race has boasted in the past. Some only had to travel from their mooring in Bernard to the starting line but others came from locales such as Prospect Harbor, Stonington, Beals, Searsport, Milbridge, Corea and Islesford,,, >photos, click to read< 10:49
The Maine Lobster boat races are back on this year
After Coronavirus cut about half of the races out the Maine Lobster Boat Racing schedule last year, the annual tradition is back in full swing for 2021. The races kicked off this weekend in Boothbay and will arrive in Bass Harbor on June 27. “It’s really a classic Maine tradition,” said Colyn Rich, a Tremont lobsterman who organized the local race. “If you haven’t had the chance to see it, you have to come see it.” Rich, who’s been racing since he was a child, said fishermen love to compete and see who can earn the bragging rights for the fastest boats. >click to read< 09:29
Lobster boat racing season was a summer success
As attention begins to turn from boat motors to snow blowers, the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association reports that the summer racing season was a resounding success. With 10 events on the card spread over venues ranging from Portland to Jonesport-Beals, according to MLBRA President Jon Johansen, 823 boats took part in races last summer. That’s the largest number of boats ever to compete in the summer racing series. >click to read< 14:33
Winter Harbor Lobster Boat Races draw huge fleet
Last Saturday at the Winter Harbor Lobster Boat Races, everyone who signed up for the event qualified for a chance in the annual post-race prize drawing organized by the event’s sponsors to win something to build — the bare hull for a brand new Mitchell Cove 35 lobster boat — and come they did. According to Jon Johansen, president of the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association, 167 boats signed up to race at Winter Harbor and earn the right to participate in the drawing. “They came out of the woodwork,” Johansen said Monday morning. >click to read< 11:40
Lobster boats converge on Rockland
Rockland — Although there was a stiff breeze and a few rain drops, a posse of area lobster boats met up in Rockland Harbor for the annual Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association’s second event of the season June 16. This year’s fastest boat was Cameron Crawford’s Wild Wild West, which suffered a broken steering arm in last year’s competition. Race results released June 24 are as follows, with a bunch of great photos! By Beth A. Birmingham >click to read<13:26
Lobster boats race at Winter Harbor this Saturday, on Sunday at Pemaquid Harbor
Whether summer is at its peak or is beginning to wind down may be open to debate, but there’s no question that the Maine lobster boat racing season is entering its final phase. On July 29, racing returned to Harpswell for the first time in five years and drew a fleet of nearly 50 boats to the seventh event on the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association calendar. This Saturday, weather cooperating, a substantially larger number of entries is expected for the eighth event on the calendar — the 53rd annual Winter Harbor Lobster Boat Races, held in conjunction with the Winter Harbor Lobster Festival. On Sunday, racing is scheduled for Pemaquid Harbor where the 32nd Merritt Brackett Lobster Boat Races will be a feature of the annual Old Bristol Days celebration. >click to read<11:19
Harpswell lobster boat races returning Sunday
They’re back. The greatly missed and much-loved annual lobster boat races are returning to Harpswell on Sunday after a four-year hiatus. And it isn’t a day too soon. “The buzz around town has been insane,” said Larry Ward, the head of the Harpswell Lobster Boat Races Committee and a co-organizer of this year’s event. “It has been sorely missed.” The races, last held in 2013, begin at 10 a.m. in Pott’s Harbor. There will be 31 race classes, ranging from non-working boats to Novi boats, with first-, secondand third-place finishers. Ward said the race committee has secured more than $9,300 in cash, gift certificates and bank cards to award the winners. >click to read<11:16
Moosabec Reach Lobster Boat Races are a speed extravaganza
Historically, the Moosabec Reach Lobster Boat Races have been held, in most years at least, on July 4, timed to coincide with Jonesport’s holiday festivities. Historically, two things were virtually assured: a great parade and dungeon-thick fog that delayed the start of the races — occasionally for days. Because the holiday falls on Wednesday this year, the races were shifted to Saturday, with astounding results. There was no fog on Moosabec Reach, and, according to Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association President Jon Johansen, 101 boats registered to compete, perhaps the biggest fleet in the history of the event, and the races actually started on time. >click to read<10:38
Maine Lobster Boat Racing: NASCAR meets tractor pulls
To Patrick Hanley, it was the extra salt that did it. A 19-year-old lobsterman from Bass Harbor, Hanley ran about 6½ knots faster during the lobster boat races in Bass Harbor last weekend in his boat, the Haleigh Katlyn, than he had the year before. But, he lamented at dockside over a few beers, he could have done better.,,, The vice president of the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association, Travis Otis, said the races are “not always just about winning a small plastic trophy, but rather the connection with other people.” “I’ve always likened it to a mix between a NASCAR race and a family reunion, sprinkled with some good old fashioned tractor pulling just for pizzazz,” Otis said. >click to read<10:00
2018 lobster boat race calendar is released
Icy weather notwithstanding, the release last week of the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association calendar poster is an absolute sign that summer is just around the corner. The poster features a striking photo of big, diesel-powered boats thundering up Moosabec Reach during last year’s Jonesport/Beals Island Lobster Boat Races with Winter Harbor fisherman Billy Bob Faulkingaham’s 51 front and center, leading the Class M pack. This year’s calendar includes 11 events, with the season bookended by June 16 racing in Boothbay Harbor and an Aug. 19 finale in Portland. >click to read<
Races draw big fleets to Stonington and Moosabec Reach
The summer lobster boat racing season is always compressed, with 10 races in harbors from Jonesport to Portland packed into just 10 weeks at the height of fishing season. It’s rare, though, that two races happen less than a week apart. This year, the fog that is as much a part of summer in Maine as the races themselves forced the fleet to gather twice in six days — on July 4 on Moosabec Reach and July 9 at Stonington — though that wasn’t the original plan.,, The fluid schedule didn’t seem to keep too many boats away. Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association President Jon Johansen had 80 working boats signed up to run. click here to read the story 11:56
