Farrin’s Boatshop in Walpole, Maine, launched the Endeavor on Aug. 1. It’s a boat Maine fishermen will undoubtedly encounter now and then, because the Endeavor is the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ newest patrol boat. She replaces the Monitor, a 35-foot Young Brothers that caught fire on Feb. 24, 2020, at the Department of Marine Resources dock in Boothbay Harbor.
The Endeavor is a 42 Calvin with an 800-hp MAN that pushes her to a 21-knot cruising speed and a top speed over 25 knots, says Bruce Farrin of Farrin’s Boatshop.
When the Endeavor is checking out lobster traps, she has a 17-inch hydraulic pot hauler, and for serious pursuit work there’s a 14-foot, hard-bottom inflatable. “That sucker goes over 50,” Farrin notes. A deck winch hauls the inflatable back aboard through the open transom.
The boat Farrin’s Boatshop is currently building, he describes as “an interesting one.” It’s a 42 Mussel Ridge lengthened to 46' x 15' for a customer in the Santa Barbara and Ventura stretch of the California coastline. It’s an area, says Farrin, “we have sent quite a few boats to.”
From the main aft-bulkhead forward “it will be nicely finished, like for a family cruiser,” he says. But step out of the wheelhouse into the cockpit, and there will be a 14-inch hauler, a fish hold and a live-well bait tank; that’s because while the boat’s owner is a businessman, “his hobby is fishing crab traps.” The boat should be completed by fall 2022 with a 1,150-hp Cat for power.
23-footer has been generating a lot of interest
Sargent’s Custom Boats in Milbridge, Maine, launched a 45 Dixon for a Vinalhaven, Maine, lobsterman the second week of August. The True North is built with all composite materials and “has one of our own custom tops,” says the boatyard’s Joe Sargent. “We don’t do molded tops. They really restrict you on what you can do with the boat.”
Instead of the usual Dixon molded top, the crew at Sargents pulled the main bulkhead back “and built a traditional Downeast-style top, like we do on every boat we build.” That’s part of a split wheelhouse, while back aft is an open transom with a tailgate.
Beneath the deck is space for 40 crates of lobsters in three separate tanks. “The most I’d done prior was 22,” Sargent says, but the Dixon being a deep boat allowed him to stack crates two high. The True North’s 800-hp MAN gives the 45-footer a 25-knot top-end speed.
After the True North was launched, Sargent’s Custom Boats began building a 42 Mussel Ridge for a lobsterman in nearby Lamoine. The second week in September the forward cabin was nearly completed, and a 1,000-hp FPT was sitting on its beds. “Oh man, they want to go fast,” noted Sargent.
A lifting strake was added to the bottom of the hull, “to help pick her up a little more. Break her free of the water a little bit.” Like the True North, the 42 Mussel is 100 percent composite construction. “Everybody’s going 100 percent with us,” says Sargent. “Then they can have the boat the rest of their lives if they want to. Otherwise every 15 years, you’ve got to tear it apart and replace everything.”
On a smaller scale, Sargent has been receiving “plenty of inquiries” for the 23-foot Crowley Beal, whose mold he acquired. So far, all but one of the hulls pulled from the mold has left as a kit boat. The one that Sargent’s Custom Boats finished was the Miss Christina for a lobsterman in Owls Head, Maine, with a 170-hp Suzuki outboard. “It has a small wheelhouse and looks like a little lobster boat,” Sargent says.
The 23-footer has a reputation for being a good boat in tough weather. Sargent was recently out in “some hellacious weather” while hauling traps. It was blowing in the 20s, and he remembers it as “pretty snotty outside. It was rough, but she handles it good.”
