A lobsterman working out of an older Young Brothers boat — maybe the first of its model line — who, despite the boat’s age doesn’t want to get rid of it, might think about talking to Moses Ortiz of Boricua Custom Boats. 

Ortiz  has a good record when it comes to refurbishing older Young Brothers lobster boats. Take the Capt’N Ben that left Boricua Custom Boats in Gouldsboro, Maine, April 4. That was a Young Brothers 40 built in 1979.

“The first 40 ever made,” says Ortiz. The boat’s current owner, Jason Follette from Prospect Harbor, bought the boat about 16 years ago from a Connecticut fisherman and had Ortiz build a new deck and below-deck lobster tanks then.

Other than a 700-hp John Deere that was installed last year, nothing more was done to the boat before it arrived at Boricua Custom Boats on Feb. 17. Then the original open wheelhouse with its square wooden windows was removed and replaced with a split wheelhouse.

“He wanted my design on it. My own touch,” said Ortiz. The washboards were removed and replaced, and, Ortiz says, “we did some cosmetics to the hull and sanded off 40 years of copper paint.”

The fiberglass hull didn’t show signs of delamination.

“It was in great shape,” says Ortiz, and the deck didn’t need work, either.

Before the Capt’N Ben, Boricus Custom Boats rebuilt a 35 Young Brothers about 14 years ago.

“That was the first Young Brothers 35 coming out of the mold. I did that too,” said Ortiz. The boat fishes out of Bunkers Harbor in Gouldsboro, Maine.

Briefly sharing space with the Capt’N Ben was a new Calvin 36 hull and top from S.W. Boatworks in Lamoine, Maine, that arrived at Boricus Custom Boats the first week in April.

She’s being finished off as a lobster boat for Stonington’s Tyler Torrey with a 450-hp Cummins. The completion date is July 4.