The turnout for Maine’s 2025 lobster boat racing season keeps getting better, with more lobster boats in each race than the 2024 numbers, as well as bettering this year’s previous races. The July 13 races at Stonington were an example, when 123 boats came to the starting line on July 13. That’s 11 more than in 2024 and 21 more boats than raced at Moosabec Reach this past July 5.
Part of Stonington’s turnout numbers can be attributed to the port’s location, which is about two-thirds the way up the Maine coast. “It’s a centrally located race,” said Jon Johansen, scorer for the Maine lobster boat races. “It’s right in the middle of everything.”
Then, add in the allure of Stonington’s prize money. The major prize for the July races was $5,000. All racers who crossed the finish line got their name dropped in a hat, but only once no matter how many races were entered; at the end of the day the lucky racer’s name would be drawn.
Now and then there’s a race when boats are so close it’s hard to tell the winner from the second-place boat. At Stonington that happened in Diesel Class M(B) (40 feet and over, 501 to 750 hp). “It was the tightest race, judges couldn’t make a decision,” between Eric Beal’s Kimberly Ann (Calvin Beal 42, 750 hp FPT) and Matt Sheppherd’s Alexsa Rose (Morgan Bay 43, 750-hp John Deere), said Johansen.
Thus, those two boats reran the race, and were joined by the four other boats that had been in the first race. “Everybody went down, whether they needed to or not,” noted Johansen. The winner, he said, was obvious; it was Kimberly Ann at 32 mph.
A boat that experienced both a race day low and a race day high was Robert Johnson’s Miss Ava Elaine (Northern Bay 36, 1,200-hp MAN). For whatever reason, the Miss Ava Elaine was the only boat in Race 20, the Diesel Class L (901hp and over, 28 feet to 39 feet 11 inches) race.
Being the only boat in Race 20, the Miss Ava Elaine won, but at what must have been this racing season’s slowest speed of 9.8 mph. Then somehow, Johnson got things back together and the Miss Ava Elaine won Race 31, the Diesel Free For All at 45 mph, beating both La Bella Vita (Northern Bay 38, 815 hp FPT) and Witching Hour (Northern Bay 36, 815 hp).
At that speed, Johnson should have been in either of the last two races, the Fastest Working Lobster Boat or the Fastest Boat Afloat race, but Johansen thinks that after Johnson had to deal with Miss Ava Elaine’s engine issues that day and “after winning the diesel free for all, he just hung it up and didn’t go back out.”
The two fastest gasoline boats were Foolish Pleasure (30 foot Custom Riley Beal, 800-hp 550 Chevy) and Black Diamond (Holland 32, 672 Chevy). Both races were uncontested; Foolish Pleasure in Gasoline Class D — V-8, 376 hp and over, 28 feet and over, and Black Diamond in Gasoline Class E - V-8, over 525 cid, 28 feet and over, superchargers, turbos. Running unopposed down the course (remember, as long as a boat crossed the finish line, the owner was eligible for the hat drawing.) Foolish Pleasure hit 51.5 mph and Black Diamond 53.6 mph.
Unfortunately, neither Foolish Pleasure nor Black Diamond stuck around for the last race, the Jimmy Stevens Cup — Fastest Boat Afloat. “They could have made the last races more interesting,” said Johansen. But both boats had problems: Foolish Pleasure had a battery issue and Black Diamond’s oil pressure wasn’t what it should have been.
La Bella Vita won the Jimmy Stevens Cup race at 43.8 mph. “La Bella Vita was the biggest standout. It’s a very dominant boat,” remembered Johansen, beating Nick Wiberg’s Witching Hour probably by a boat length.
When the races concluded, Chris Pope whose Old School (Holland 41, 380-hp Cummins) had bested two other boats at 28.6 mph in Diesel Class M(A), (40 feet and over, up to 500 hp) took home another prize when his name was pulled from the hat and he received the $5,000 grand prize.
