The weekend of June 14-15 marked the annual inauguration of what many Maine lobstermen spent much of the year thinking about, worrying about and planning for: The pure visual and sensory exhilaration of pushing their lobster boat to its absolute maximum speed, amidst other boats doing the same, down a course close to a mile long.
That’s Maine lobster boat racing, and the 2025 racing season started on Saturday at Boothbay and went on to Sunday in Rockland. It ends after eight more encounters on Sunday Aug. 17 at the MS Harborfest Lobster Boat Races in Portland.
“It was a pretty good turnout”, said Jon Johansen, the race scorer of Maine’s Lobster Boat Racing, about the Boothbay and Rockland races; 53 boats raced at Boothbay, nine more than the previous year. Rockland had 48 boats, an increase “by a few boats over 2024,” said Johansen.
Two trends that have been developing over the past few years were readily noticeable. One is that fewer skiffs are showing up to race, one skiff in Boothbay, which was Baxter Holland’s Baby Baron (Holland 14, 30-hp Yamha) and two skiffs in Rockland, the Baby Baron and Cameron Murphy’s Nugget (Holland 14, 30-hp Honda). The Baby Baron won the Rockland skiff race at 24.4 mph.
Additionally, “there are hardly any gasoline boats anymore,” noted Johansen. At Boothbay, it was only Jim Koehling’s Brown Eyed Girl (Duffy 26, 454-hp Chevy) and Mark Freeman’s Foolish Pleasure (Custom Riley Beal 30, 800-hp, 550-cubic-inch Chevy). They raced against each other in the Gasoline Free for All, which Foolish Pleasure took at 47.7 mph, while Brown Eyed Girl hit 35 mph.
The same two boats signed up to race at Rockland. But, marking the first mechanical breakdowns for this year’s races, Foolish Pleasure couldn’t race “because it broke a starter and couldn’t get it going,” says Johansen. Then Black Diamond (Holland 32, 672-hp Chevy) another gas-powered lobster boat that had come to race at Rockland, “had big troubles trying to get the boat to the line and it wouldn’t run right,” said Johansen. Water in the fuel was the culprit.
That left Brown Eyed Girl, which ran down the course by itself in the Gasoline Class C V-8, 376 to 525 cid, 28 feet and over class at 37.5 mph.
The first weekend of racing is always a chance for lobstermen to make a statement with a new or rebuilt boat. One of those boats was Robert Johnson’s the Miss Ava Elaine (Northern Bay 36, 1200-hp MAN) in Diesel Class L (900-hp, 28 feet and over). Previously it carried the name Starlight. At Boothbay, the Miss Ava Elaine won the Diesel Free-For-All against nine other boats, hitting 48.8 mph, as well as the Fastest Working Lobster Boat Race, at 48.7 mph. In the second race Miss Ava Elaine beat La Bella Vita (Northern Bay 38, 815-hp FPT) and Brown Eyed Girl (Duffy 26, 454-hp Chevy). “She was a boat to take note of over the weekend,” said Johansen.
The Miss Ava Elaine was also unbeatable at Rockland, winning the Diesel Free-For-All at 48 mph, against three other boats and the Fastest Lobster Boat race at 47 mph, against only La Belle Vita, which clocked at 45 mph.
In the lower horsepower classes, a new boat getting “a lot of attention that dominated class M(A)”— 40 feet and over, up to 500 hp — at both Boothbay and Rockland, said Johansen, was Lebaron Libby’s Gramp’s Legacy (Libby 41, 500-hp FPT). “Gramp’s Legacy” refers to Libby’s grandfather, the late Ernest Libby Jr., also-know-as Nernie, a well-known designer and builder of wooden Maine lobster boats on Beals Island. Gramp’s Legacy’s best time was 29.2 mph at Boothbay against two other boats.
This Sunday, June 22, Libby and Gramp’s Legacy will have a chance to extend their unbeaten streak when Maine’s lobstermen gather at Bass Harbor for their third race of the 2025 lobster boat racing season.
