Feeney Boatshop in Cutler, Maine, has a number of boats in for repairs and a couple of new boats to build. Two older lobster boats, a 27-foot H&H and a 31-foot BHM — both from Jonesboro, Maine — are in for new decks.
Feeney Boatshop’s Patrick Feeney figures the H&H is about 15 years old. He’s not sure how long the BHM has been fishing, but long enough in both cases for poor ventilation to have rotted out the plywood and wood-framed decks. They will be replaced with pressure treated framing and plywood and fiberglass decks.
A 50-foot Dixon out of Machiasport, Maine, came in the first week in February. (It’s 45-foot Dixon with a 5-foot stern extension.) She’s getting a new layer of rubber on the deck and some minor repairs, including fixing a crack in the exhaust.
A Cutler lobsterman’s 45 Guimond was in having a winterback added to the wheelhouse, a new stuffing box and some “little repairs,” says Feeney. (Guimond boats are not that well known in this country, but they have been built by the Canadian company Guimond Marine. For a brief period, starting about 2014, the owner tried building boats for the U.S. market in Eastport, Maine, adopting the name Millennium Marine in the process. Though the U.S. venture didn’t work out, the name Millennium Marine was retained. It is based in New Brunswick.)
Among the new boats to be built at Feeney Boatshop is a 44 Calvin from S.W. Boatworks that will have a split-wheelhouse and below deck storage tanks. Feeney isn’t sure what the engine will be, but the owner is “leaning towards a 750-hp John Deere.” Construction should start in late spring.
Then there’s a Mitchell Cove 20 and a Mitchell Cove 35 to build. Both are lobster boats. (Feeney Boatshop has the Mitchell Cove 20, 32, 35 and 37 molds.) The Mitchell Cove 35 is for a Cutler, Maine, fisherman and will be completed this summer with a Scania 650-hp engine.
The Mitchell Cove 20 will be powered with a 115-hp outboard. Layup started the second week in February, and she should be completed by the first of May. It’s the sixth or seventh outboard powered Mitchell Cove 20 that Feeney has built.
