by Brian Robbins
Welcome to the debut of a new CFN feature, Shakedown Cruise.
Periodically, we will focus on a new launch and dig a little deeper into what went into the project – whether it be a new model or a hull well-known to the New England commercial market. What we hope to do is provide insight and information our readers can apply to their own setups … and, as always, offer up a little entertainment along the way. —Editor
CUTLER, ME – “Down in Cutler, they’re basically offshore about the time they cast off the mooring pennant.”
It’s more than just an old Downeast Maine one-liner: it’s pretty much the truth. The Cutler lobster fleet may not have far to run to their outer gear (“Nine miles and I’m in Canada,” says John Drouin), but the waters they work are fierce with tide. It’s hard enough work on a flat-calm day once the tide starts running; you get a little (or a lot) of wind on top of that, and it gets nasty quick.
50-year-old John Drouin is, by his own admission, fairly particular about things. As hard as he works in the course of a year, he also takes pride in keeping his boats and gear in the best condition.
“When I sold my last boat,” he says, “the surveyor asked me, ‘How old did you say this boat was?’ I told him it was nine years old and he kind of shook his head. ‘I’ve actually been trying to find something wrong with it,’ he said. ‘But … I can’t.’”
That boat was a Wesmac 46, launched in 2005. It replaced a Wesmac 42 that Drouin had built new in 2002. Both of them were good boats, he says.
“I’d never had a boat as comfortable as that 42,” says John. “And the 46 was just a little more of everything I liked about the 42. I loved that boat.”…
Read the full story in the May issue of Commercial Fisheries News.
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