H&H Marine in Steuben, Maine, should really set up a boatshop on the West Coast. Ideally it would be somewhere around San Francisco, because that’s where they’ve sent several boats. The next one being built for the San Francisco area is an Osmond 42 with a 17' 6" beam that will be finished off as a crabber with a 750-hp John Deere for power.
The 42-footer may be working another fishery, as well as crabbing, because the owners are “talking about putting a net reel on,” says H&H Marine’s Bruce Grindal. The 42-footer should be leaving H&H Marine at the end of the year.
Not counting that boat, H&H Marine has sent about 10 fishing boats to the West Coast, with at least one West Coast fisherman satisfied enough with the Osmond 46 he had been fishing that he took delivery of a second one in early 2019. The most recent West Coast delivery was an Osmond 46' x 17' 6" crabber with a 700-hp Volvo that also went to the San Francisco area.
Closer to home in New England, H&H Marine is currently building an Osmond 50' x 19' 2" kit boat that will lobster out of Gloucester, Mass. An Osmond 47 was lengthened by three feet at the stern to bring it out to 50 feet. “When he brings the engine up, we are going to put the Volvo engine in, shaft, rudder and a few bulkheads,” says Grindal. The hull is being built with an open stern that will receive a hydraulic tailgate. H&H has built about five 50-footers.
A 32' x 11' 3" Osmond rod and reel tuna boat is going to Montauk, N.Y., with a 400-hp John Deere by the end of October. That will follow an Osmond 42 rod and reel tuna boat with a 750-hp John Deere that went to the Gloucester area.
Racing time. Three boats idle up to the starting line, hesitate until the starter’s flag drops, then three throttles are slammed down and the scream of diesels ramped to their maximum tells anyone within earshot it’s Maine Lobster Boat Racing Season, the time of the year when the last thing a lobsterman is thinking about is hauling traps. They are putting everything on the line — including the life of their engine — to be first across the finish line.
