After ten years and 120 timely installments, the title to my fishing vessel aka Ducks and Bucks is in the mail. The 27 foot Osmond Beal design finished by none other than Osmond Beal and his grandson Erick Blackwood (the chairman of the Moosabec World's Fastest Boat Races) became mine on Thursday, May 9, 2013.
Here's a couple neat facts and/or stories about my boat...
The boat was the last to be finished in the former Osmond's Boat Shop on Beal's Island as a newer larger facility was installed next to the aging and now collapsing building.
The first paycheck did not originate from the almighty pursuit of lobsters, but rather a dive job for an ailing yacht that had pulled some 3 inch wide rope into the wheel.
Hit almost 30 knots during the sea trial, and hasn't been that speed since.
When naming this vessel, a disagreement occurred... Often, men name their boats after their wives. Since I did NOT have one at the time, I went with a catchy name that exemplified my passions. I married my wife several weeks after the boat was officially put onto the ocean.
My cousin and the Alley brothers decided to have some fun with me during a haul out. They put a for sale sign on the boat for a price they determined would be "low enough to move fast". For about two days, I received calls about selling the boat, several were at 3 a.m. when lobstermen are up and at em during the summer. Eventually I figured out I had been punked.
Due to the lobster glut and low price last year, I hauled my traps out early and was done before school started. The D&B only spent 12 weeks on the ocean last season.
Almost all of my sea duck scouting occurs while working on the Ducks and Bucks. Watching the birds fly by in the early fall is one of my favorite parts of being on the water, hunting them several weeks later is my favorite part of being on the water.
This past week, I interviewed to become principal for a regional elementary school.
