By Jon Johansen, Maine Coast News. Reprinted with permission. The article has been edited for length.
One of the most noted race boats 20 to 25 years ago was the 28-footer Christopher, raced by Isaac Beal of Beals Island. She was built by Mariner (Lovey) Beal, Isaac’s father, and was launched in 1976.
Christopher in the shop at the Jonesport Shipyard. J. Johansen photo.
She made her first appearance in the 1990s, then in 1998 Isaac got serious. He raced her for seven years, dominating Gasoline Class C and the Wooden Boat Race. She was retired in 2005. After a few years lobstering she was placed out back with the hope of having some much-needed repairs done.
This April, Alonzo Alley, yard manager at Jonesport Shipyard, was helping Isaac’s son Christopher, for whom the boat is named, move some moorings around his yard with a telehandler. Alonzo knew that Isaac would love to see his boat racing again. So he hooked on to her trailer and dragged her out. He took her to Jonesport Shipyard and placed her in Bert Frost’s old shop. The repairs have begun.
“Chris always hung around with dad,” said Isaac. “He was Gramp’s boy. He would go out there and sit with dad, of course dad would sit down a lot because he had emphysema and heart trouble and they would talk. Chris asked him what he was going to name her? Well, you know what happened after that.”
“Dad wanted a new boat and he was in his late 60s. I told him that I would help him because I had my other stuff to do, herring and seining. He would have a plank for each side ready and I would go in and help him get them put on. We got the deck laid and I made the houses all up on sawhorses and ready to put on. I always did the windshields and I did that for him. Finally, we got her ready. She had a used shaft and a used propeller. When she went in the water, I think she had a 130 hp Chevy. He was happy because she was a nice-looking boat and everybody wanted to buy it off of him. He used her four years and then he passed away.”
Mariner had planned that when he passed away the boat would be sold to pay all his expenses. Mariner’s wife, however, wanted Isaac to have the boat. He explained, “I had a Gower boat that was 20 years old. She was a nice boat, I used that for 10 years. Mother said, ‘No, I want you to have the boat.’ I said, ‘Well, I will sell mine and I will pay all of the bills.’ So, I got the boat. I fished her from ’80 up until about ’85 then I started mussel dragging with the herring boat I had.”
Isaac raced Christopher a few times in the 1990s. Racing can be serious business and money can dictate success. “I lucked out,” said Isaac. “I was doing the salmon business and I had a big scow with a boom on it. I got a call at 9 o’clock one night. I had a terrible headache so I went to bed early. I got that call and they wanted me to come down, a boat had grounded on a ledge down by Hall’s Island and filled. I tried to work my way out of it because I felt miserable. [But] I went and got one of my workers, Oscar Norton, and we went down. I got the mast up on the deck and run a line down through it so I could get her upright. The Coast Guard put the pumps in her and the water would just keep slopping over the deck. I said, ‘Well, she’s got a hole in her somewhere.’ When the tide was down the bottom of her was sitting right on the beach, no keel on her. She wouldn’t sit upright so I had the boom right out and brought her up here to the Shipyard and they hauled her out. Then I had Chris dive down to get the keel. Then I called Sune [former owner of the Jonesport Shipyard] and said to him, ‘I have got the keel, it is on the bow of my scow. When I get my check, they get the keel.’ I charged them $5,000 and I said, ‘Now I am going racing.’”
Isaac took the wooden rudder off Christopher and bought a stainless steel one. He hauled back the engine as far as he could and then bought a lightweight reduction gear. He ran the 350 Chevy engine for a couple of races and then switched to a 455 Oldsmobile. He dominated the circuit for seven years and claimed he never had to run her hard. He said when he got near the crowd he would open her up as they loved the sound that came from her straight pipes.
The 502 is still in her, but Isaac says that it is stuck. That is not the biggest problem though. He explained, “I was going to repair her right there by my shop, but I never got to it. My wife got sick and I was tied to Beals Island for about eight years. I took care of her myself and then I got sick.” There is a lot of work to do on the hauling side of the boat. She will need new sharprisers, frames and planks. He added, “I need to put ribs down back. The ribs were getting poor on the hauling side because she has a wet floor.” So far he has been able to refasten her from the stem to the bulkhead. “I have got almost 685 screws in her,” he said. The entire trunk cabin and house will be replaced too.
Christopher was the next-to-the-last boat Isaac and his father built together. The hope is to have Christopher ready for next year’s racing season, but Isaac isn’t sure. “I don’t know what to say. I have got so many things wrong with me. I have got a plastic aorta value. I have got a stint. I have got a pacemaker. I have got a metal and plastic leg and a brace on the other leg. And I have diabetes.”
Isaac goes to the yard whenever he can and works several hours each day. He has help when he needs it from the Shipyard workers, who he is teaching the ins and outs of wooden boat repair.
Comments