Webbers Cove

[Linesiders]

Anyone have any history, background, experience with these boats? Doing some searching but no seeing much regard these vessels. Are they real downeasters, made to handle seas or imposters?

 

[BillD]

No imposters!

Spencer Lincoln designs.
"Real full keel single engine DE boats"!

 

[CEShawn]

Do not know much but knew a guy with an H&H 34 who wish he got the closest size Webbers Cove. I guess they are alot bigger deck space maybe? He doesnt have any complaints about his H&H in the same breathe he says. I think I have only seen one and it was a nice one out of Plymouth. That is where I miss www.billyoliverboats.com dont know where he ended up.

 

[steveinak]

Webbers Cove with a cut down sheer,I lobstered on this one that my friend finished back in the mid 70's. Powered by a 4-71 it ran along nicely, we fished in just about any weather.

 

[BillD]

Webbers Cove with a cut down sheer,I lobstered on this one that my friend finished back in the mid 70's. Powered by a 4-71 it ran along nicely, we fished in just about any weather.

Jeeze, that beauty looks like a Great Lakes iron ore freighter with the nose up front!

 

[steveinak]

Jeeze, that beauty looks like a Great Lakes iron ore freighter with the nose up front!

It was a nice little boat. We could carry about 120 44" traps on her. Only problem was the owner never wanted to slow down so blew out the front windows quite a few times! He ended up putting that safety glass with the chicken wire in it in the front windows and that held up a bit better and i think he also learned to pull back on the red knob more often!!

Anybody remember wooden gear? This was taken on that boat i think back around 1975, we were fishing 1200 traps then, hauled 3-400 every day seven days a week, 3 days a week would probaly kill me now!

 

[harborguy]

heres mine 1971 34 ft

 

[Downeaster]

Anybody remember wooden gear? This was taken on that boat i think back around 1975, we were fishing 1200 traps then, hauled 3-400 every day seven days a week, 3 days a week would probaly kill me now!

Fished 'em. Built 'em (half-round and square). Treated 'em for worms. I'd knit heads. At the start of every season, I emptied the shore of every rock that I could lift. I worried about 'em with every bit of weather.

Thought that I'd died and gone to heaven after pulling my first string of wire traps. And my, didn't they hold the bottom in damned near any weather!

The only problem that I ever had with wire was some I had in aluminized wire - no vinyl. That wire had some silicon in it and they got to disappearing during season two (didn't winter very well either). Vinyl lasts until that annual gear loss gets 'em.

 

[Downeaster]

Spencer Lincoln designs.
"Real full keel single engine DE boats"!

Not all of the Webber Cove boats were proprietary designs. They bought the mold for the South Shore 30 and eventually sold it to Ken Flowers. I don't know how many 30s were produced (or what they were called) but the mold was awfully rough just before it was moved to Walpole.

 

[steveinak]

Fished 'em. Built 'em (half-round and square). Treated 'em for worms. I'd knit heads. At the start of every season, I emptied the shore of every rock that I could lift. I worried about 'em with every bit of weather.

Thought that I'd died and gone to heaven after pulling my first string of wire traps. And my, didn't they hold the bottom in damned near any weather!

The only problem that I ever had with wire was some I had in aluminized wire - no vinyl. That wire had some silicon in it and they got to disappearing during season two (didn't winter very well either). Vinyl lasts until that annual gear loss gets 'em.

Same here, built thousands of them, knit the heads every evening after building all day, used to steam bend the hoops and used a 55gal drum for the form(offshore gear), bought lath & frames for square gear from a outfit in Conn. then got some from North Country Wood Products in Maine. When first setting out we'd go around and get all the broken up concrete rubble to put in the traps to sink them before the oak soaked up. Dipped the
traps in gas tar to keep the worms out, that was before that pot dip came out, cut the pot dip with diesel then floated the stuff on water to keep the level up when you rolled the traps over in it. Some guys ended up with purple welts on the skin where the pot dip splashed on them, that was some bad stuff.
When we first got some wire gear we thought it sucked, the traps just loaded up with crabs but nobody told us about vents!! Yup they do stay put in the blows, we fished 20 trap trawls and only problem we had was the ends would blow around a bit but the gear stayed put.

Picture from the old days at the tar pot


Here's what i'm building these days, check out the rest of my gear at alaskashrimppots.com


I'm hauling in just over 100 fathoms here

 

[steveinak]

Not all of the Webber Cove boats were proprietary designs. They bought the mold for the South Shore 30 and eventually sold it to Ken Flowers. I don't know how many 30s were produced (or what they were called) but the mold was awfully rough just before it was moved to Walpole.

Didn't WC build some 34's & 40's for the military? I remember guys buying boats at auctions that had seats all around the insides(personel movers?) that they claimed were Webbers Cove hulls.

 

[Downeaster]

Here's what i'm building these days, check out the rest of my gear at alaskashrimppots.com
View attachment 1257

I'm hauling in just over 100 fathoms here
View attachment 1259 [/QUOTE]

Those Pandalus borealis? I've never potted shrimp though I know that there are a few New Englanders that do. More of it SE?

 

[steveinak]

Here's what i'm building these days, check out the rest of my gear at alaskashrimppots.com
View attachment 1257

I'm hauling in just over 100 fathoms here
View attachment 1259

Those Pandalus borealis? I've never potted shrimp though I know that there are a few New Englanders that do. More of it SE?[/QUOTE]



Spot prawns are what we call them. I tried building the same style trap as the Mainers use, they caught just about nothing and i tried moving them around on the line they just never fished. I fish in Prince William Sound the commercial fishery has only been open for 2 years not many boats fishing it because its a small quota & we can only fish 50 traps per boat.but i like it that way. PWS is a exclusive fishery so if you fish any other shrimp fishery in the state you can't fish shrimp in PWS. Keeps the big boats out. Yes they do have quite a big fishery in SE but there are a lot of boats in that fishery and its a winter fishery, i don't want to get my arse beat any more by weather. DE next time i get to Maine we need to meet up and eat a pizza and BS a bit.

 

[Downeaster]

View attachment 1271



Upper, Steve's prawns

Lower, our Maine shrimp

About the only difference I see is the appendage banding on Steve's critters (the dark spot on the Mainer are eggs)

 

[Pedlyr]

Here's what i'm building these days, check out the rest of my gear at alaskashrimppots.com
View attachment 1257

I'm hauling in just over 100 fathoms here
View attachment 1259

Those Pandalus borealis? I've never potted shrimp though I know that there are a few New Englanders that do. More of it SE?[/QUOTE]

You gotta permit forthat????

 

[Downeaster]

You gotta permit forthat????

Not needed yet - maybe by the end of the week though ...

 

[steveinak]

Those Pandalus borealis? I've never potted shrimp though I know that there are a few New Englanders that do. More of it SE?

You gotta permit forthat????[/QUOTE]

Yup.

 

[Linesiders]

Thanks for the info, been out fishin for a couple days, got beat up returing from west atlantis in a sport fishing boat, 8 hours into a head sea, while thinking about how much better the trip would have been in a downeast ride.

 

[CEShawn]

Ha! I just watched a video of a guy running in a 28' center console pounding through a small head sea and all I could think about was how much better it is in my downeast! LOL how was Atlantis?

 

[steveinak]

Those Pandalus borealis? I've never potted shrimp though I know that there are a few New Englanders that do. More of it SE?[/QUOTE]

The shrimp i trap are Spot shrimp P. platyceros, they are much bigger than the shrimp they drag/trap in New England. We do catch a few of those smaller northern shrimp in the traps and the few i have eaten seem to be mushy and the spots are very firm. I use 1x1 wire for the traps so not many of the smaller shrimp stay in the traps.