The incident happened at around 6:30 a.m. with “a handful of people watching.” Weaver added that the engine was running “smooth as silk before she went under.” Against all odds, the Lorna R. underwent an eleventh-hour resurrection, including repair to the hull and engine. Weaver took the engine back to his shop in Steuben and began work on it at 5:00 a.m. the morning after the accident. He had it rebuilt in two weeks time. Weaver said, “One hundred percent is not ninety-nine point nine percent! We worked and we worked. I wasn’t going to do this ever again, after racing Benny Beal’s Stella Ann, I thought that was the end of the line.” Weaver has a long and controversial history on the lobster boat racing circuit Downeast. However, after all is said and done, his engines have brought more than a few boats over the finish line first. Weaver credits the Beals Island community for offering help to the Alleys. “They’re all boat builders down there. It took a lot of new screws, all new planking and ribs, and they did it,” he said. “He’s going to Boothbay, and he’s going racing!” Rocky Alley confirmed that it took over 2,100 screws, 28 timbers and six new planks to get things going again for brother Gavin. On June 12th, after Weaver did the plugs, the cylinders, the timing and the carburetor, the Lorna R. slowly sailed around. “After that test run, I knew what to do,” Weaver said, referring to further work on fine-tuning the engine. Moosabec’s race coordinator, Melanie Alley said of Gavin and his crew, “They’re bound and determined. It was their Dad’s boat, you know.” The Lorna R. was restored this winter, after the plans were completed last August. Richard Weaver worked on the big block Chevy engine designed to power her through the 2006 Lobster Boat Races (which began June 17th in Boothbay Harbor). Since the days of sail-driven fishing boats, the early Reach boats and Friendship Sloops, the workboats of Maine have been raced for sport. Along with being an arena that highlights racing skills, Maine’s Lobster Boat Racing circuit has served as a proving ground. Builders and custom engine designers demonstrate what works, and what doesn’t. The Lorna R. did well during that first round of races in Boothbay. “We set a speed record for wooden lobster boats,” said Weaver. The next stop is Moosabec on Tuesday, July 4th, where the Lorna R. will be back in home waters. According to Richard K. Lunt’s Lobsterboat Building on the Coast of Maine, Will “Pappy” Frost’s first shop on Beals Island was the former smokehouse of Charles Henry Beal. Frost came from Digby Neck, Nova Scotia where he fished and raced boats. In 1912, as a newcomer to Beals, Frost set up his boat building business with partner George Addington, and began work on a hull which was to be a faster version of his Ethyl Maud, a 33 ft. lobster boat built in 1908 and powered by a Myannas engine. Local fishermen who challenged the newly built Frost design found themselves lost in its wake. Jonesport-Beals boats had long been respected for their swiftness in the water and their graceful lines. With the addition of Will Frost’s talent to the boat building community of Beals, that reputation grew as master boat builders passed on skills through the generations. Frost was a master at matching hull speed to horsepower without any compromise to the utility required in a lobster boat. The pre-war “torpedo stem” hulls built by Alton Rogers, George Dow and Will Frost of Beals echoed the lines of Navy vessels. When Frost returned to Beals after serving as a tugboat builder for the Canadian government during the first World War, he opened a shop once more on Beals, this time in Barney’s Cove, with its Redwing Thoroughbred Marine Engine dealership. Frost’s two most famous boats were named Redwing and Thoroughbred, after the engine brand, and both designs echoed the sleek, forward-raking “tumblehome” stern that became the Jonesport - Beals trademark. In 1925, Harold Gower came from Nova Scotia to work for Frost, who had begun to hire and train several young men from Beals as apprentices. In 1928, Frost moved his shop inshore to Jonesport, and Gower went with him, staying on until Frost’s business crashed with the stock market in September 1929. In an interview with Harold Gower by Lynn Franklin, Gower recalled Frost building 75- and 80-foot power boats for out of state clients during the 1920’s. According to Gower, one had two 300 H.P. Sterling engines, which hit 22 knots on a trial run in Moosabec Reach, and another had two 500 H.P. Liberty airplane engines which could go 35 mph. This was 80 years ago. Before Richard Weaver entered the picture in the engine business, Will Frost was the “go-to” guy if you wanted a fast boat. Riley Beal worked alongside Harold Gower in Will Frost’s shop. When Gower and Riley went into partnership in 1936, the first boat they built together was Elmer Alley’s Belva M.. The Lorna R. was Riley’s last boat, built with grandson Dick Alley. Riley’s great-grandson, Rocky Alley, didn’t take long to come up with the names of the boats his father raced during the 1970’s. “There was Freddie Lenfesty, in Laura W., Jimmy Preston’s Marguerite, Little Ben, and Dwayne Carver in Carrie and Tammy. Herb Wood Jr. had Myrtle Bell, which he bought off Ernest Libby,” he said. In the past, victory at the Lobster Boat Races eluded the Lorna R. No matter how things go at the races on the 4th, the Lorna R. crew’s perseverance and determination has been impressive.
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