Taylored Boats in Addison, Maine, whose lineup of boat models is based on the Willis Beal-designed RP molds that now carry the designer’s name, had a Willis Beal/RP 35 in the shop the last week in April.
Well, when the lobster boat Overtime, out of Rockland, Maine, arrived in December at Taylored Boats, it was a 35-footer — but not when it left.
“Willis thinks it might be the very first 35,” says Taylor. That means it would have been built in 1992. However, when the Overtime leaves in May, it will go back in the water at 38 feet. It will have not only picked up three feet on the stern, but new lobster tanks beneath the deck and a new wheelhouse.
The wheelhouse, which was “the original 35 RP house,” Taylor says, was removed, and then a mold was taken off it.
“Now I have both the hull and house” molds, he says. Taylored Boats’ Willis Beal molds are for the 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, and 44. Taylor has also built a Willis Beal 50, but there’s no mold for that.
For power, the Overtime has a 425-hp Cummins that was installed a couple of years ago.
Before the Overtime arrived at Taylored Boats, the Déjà Vu, a Willis Beal 44 that Taylor had previously built, was widened from 15' 2" to 18' for a Trescott, Maine, lobsterman. She’s powered with an 800-hp Scania that Taylor says gets the 44-footer up to 22.5 knots. The below-deck tanks will hold 16 crates.
The fo’c’sle, says Taylor, “is fully finished with cabinets and two bunks. It could be an overnight boat, but isn’t used for that because he fishes close to where he lives.”
