Anyone who intended to have a quiet morning along the Boothbay Harbor waterfront last Saturday would have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you came for the powerful, piercing whine of high-speed gasoline and diesel engines, then you were right at home. Saturday marked the start of Maine’s 2015 lobster boat racing season. It was the first day of a two-day event, with Rockland hosting races on Sunday.
Little Girls runs ahead of Black Diamond at the Rockland lobster boat races, hitting 45.8 mph. Jon Johansen photoIt was a long commute for some of the boats: the Ms. Rose, a Mitchell Cove 35 with a 410-hp Sisu, came up from New Hampshire; the Jenna Marie, a Northern Bay 36 with a 610-hp Cummins traveled from Milbridge, Maine; and the Kim Celeste, a Calvin 44 with a 1,000-hp MAN, was from Steuben.
The races that garner the most attention are the gasoline free-for-all, the diesel free-for-all, and the fastest lobster boat, which is open to any boat, gas or diesel. On Saturday the story was all about the Little Girls, a 28-foot Calvin with a new Ford engine. She took the gasoline free-for-all without much problem at 38.7 mph. The Little Girls had won her gasoline class-D race at 45 mph, so she obviously had power to spare.
In the fastest lobster boat race, the Little Girls was matched up against Lisa Marie, a Libby 34 with a 690-hp FPT. Here the Little Girls was pushed a little harder before she won at 46.6 mph.
The Miss Karlee, a new Mitchell Cove 32 with a 1,000-hp Caterpillar C18, and winner of the diesel free-for-all, was supposed to be in the fastest lobster boat race, but at the last moment she was pulled from the race. No one knows why. She had hit 42.9 mph in an earlier run and on sea trials supposedly notched 50 mph.
Sunday was a dismal day for doing anything — let alone racing — with a heavy downpour all day, but it wasn’t enough to keep away the dedicated racers and 28 boats signed up to run. There would have been more but rumors on Facebook had the race canceled. It was raining hard enough that the radar gun didn’t work much of the time.
There was a lot of interest in the match-up between Turn the Page, a Crowley 36, and Miss Karlee. Turn the Page supposedly has a 450-hp Cummins but wins races against boats with a lot more horsepower. That’s what happened when Turn the Page beat the Miss Karlee in the diesel free-for-all, hitting 40.4 mph.
Things got turned around in the fastest lobster boat race when the Miss Karlee beat Turn the Page, but both lost out to Little Girls, which won the event at 44 mph.
