Over the past 20 years, fishermen in the northern New England area looking for a well-appointed, handsome, seaworthy wooden fishing boat have usually ended up at South Bristol, Maine’s Poorhouse Cove. Home of Peter Kass’ John’s Bay Boat, the yard started building wooden boats in 1983.
That tradition is slowly coming to an end. John’s Bay Boat Co. is currently building its 78th wooden boat, which is also its last commercial vessel. It’s the 34’ tuna boat Lea Katherine, which will launch this spring and be based in Beverly, Mass.
“We haven’t built a boat under 40 feet in 15 years,” says Kass. But other than the size, he says, “There’s not a great deal of difference from the earlier boats and the one being built. We’ve refined a few things, but the hull construction is unchanged.”
As in earlier vessels, the hull consists of 1” cedar planking over 2”x 1 ¼” white oak framing. There are 2” floor timbers, the 5” keel, stem and rudder post, all also white oak. Fastenings throughout the boat are all bronze. Generally, Kass’ boats have had Douglas fir platforms, though Kass says, “we have done glass ones.”
That includes the boat being built, which has a plywood and fiberglass work deck. “We don’t like it,” adds Kass, speaking of the fiberglass, “but we do it.” The wheelhouse has been finished with an Awlgrip coating “to make it shinier.”
Kass describes the interior as nice, with two bunks, galley, settee, enclosed head and storage area. The Lea Katherine is being powered with a 6.7-liter Cummins and a Twin Disc 5075 gear with a 2:1 ratio. “Hope it goes 23 knots and cruises at 17 knots,” says Kass.
Once the Lea Katherine leaves this coming spring, Kass emphasizes that it’s “not the end of John’s Bay Boat, and not the last boat coming out of John’s Bay Boat.” That will be “a 34-footer, the same hull, it’s a little cruising hull for my wife and I.”
It will be the last new boat, but John’s Bay Boat is not shutting down. The boat shop’s Jeff Hanley and Andy Dickens, who have worked there for 20 years, “will carry on maintenance and repair work,” says Kass.
