What is a downeast hull ? Any hull built downeast....

 

is there a demarcation line, town or island somewhere north along the "downeast coast" that begins the downeast boat building industry ?
I call them keel boats

 

That's a good name.

 

If a full displacement hull was built in Maine would it be downeast,sheerline,full long keel with oversized rudder,ballast,can a downeast have a round stern,a plumb bow,soft chined,single protected prop, or the only description that matters is being built in downeast Maine,and everything is downeast style,so I could almost call my full displacement cruiser downeast style cause it has so many attributes,not that I ever would call it that,but was curious

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That's a good looking boat, what make is it?

 

Well I guess I have a Downwest then. LOL

 

Glenn Holland, Flowers, Mussel Ridge, Southport just to name a few west of Arcadia.
Basically anything designed by a Lincoln, Frost, Libby, Beal, Lowell, and a there are a few I can’t remember right now.

 

Acadia !

Cummings are made in ARcadia

 

He added an R, you added a G

 

Lostsailor:

Your question, depending on the prevailing mood of the Panel, runs the risk of being a virtual grenade-toss. (Disclaimer here for the martial imagery.)

If in an expansive, collegial predisposition, well, everyone gets a trophy. On other days, with regard to your illustration -- the small and unprotected rudder, flat, semi-express looking hull below the water-line, and the recurve stem --- the long-knives might come out.

 

Read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Boatbuilding-Down-East-Lobsterboats-Built/dp/0937822736
Or watch this:

 

Downeast hulls are defined by what's below the waterline not above. It may look like a lobster boat but, not where it counts.

 

That's what I thought..

 

What started it all was Wilbur Morse and the friendship sloops they were the mostly used vessels on ME coast in days before lobsterin was revolutionized,and used wind for propulsion before the introduction of gas motors,then the keels were shortened but kept the hulls longer and with less beam to achieve hull speeds using minimal hp,as hp increased so did displacement and the sizes of motors,leading to the flat aft section for support with flared hull to roll aside hull wake,soft chined to eliminate wave slap

 

Holy roller ,who knew. LOL

 

I don't know about the hull shape argument. Would you consider a 1950's wooden beals island boat a "downeast" hull?

What about a 42 wesmac? Much different hulls. But no one would say a Wesmac is not a downeast hull.

As for location, that explanation is nonsense, too. 43 Lowells are laid up in Yarmouth, ME. The legendary Bruno hulls were laid up down in NH, and then MA, I think.

These days downeast hull probably means a hull that is used to lobster or desended from a lobster hull. They all a far cry from that double ender pictured above!

 

Downeast designates a local. Agree, better to call all mentioned Lobster boat style or influenced.

 

I'm born and raised on the north Atlantic,love smooth downeast lines,but some of the old pnw work boats would totally outperform the downeasters

 

I'm born and raised on the north Atlantic,love smooth downeast lines,but some of the old pnw work boats would totally outperform the downeasters

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Some ought to update that chart with a 48 Mussel Ridge with a 900hp Scania setting back a 20 trap trawl in 30 fathom with 2 sternmen.

 

We have these Juniper Hull, fishing boats and skiffs built "downeast" in North Carolina. Harkers Island, Atlantic, Sea Level, Otway, Etc. So anything EAST of Beaufort NC.
They were all very basic. Net and Mullet boats mostly. So long line blue crab boats I have seen these with 305 dry stack Chevy Gas Engines and Powergluide 2 Speed automotive transmissions....These evolved into the mega million dollar custom Carolina sportfishing yachts.
Google Image Result for https://www.diy-wood-boat.com/image-files/salty5.jpg

 

If someone asks what a “fathom” is I will ask Bill to ground you from the site for one week!

 

If someone asks what a "fathom" is I will ask Bill to ground you from the site for one week!

 

Just call them “Downeasts” knowing that through evolution and travel the design made its way down the coast. If it was designed by some marine architect with 8 degrees in four different subjects in marine design that was born in Ohio it’s not a DE.

 

Just call them "Downeasts" knowing that through evolution and travel the design made its way down the coast. If it was designed by some marine architect with 8 degrees in four different subjects in marine design that was born in Ohio it's not a DE.

I have heard that it isn't a downeast if the designer went to college. I dunno how I feel about that. These boats (mine is preWWII hull technology built in 1976) would have benefitted tremendously from more modern bottoms if ideas had been brought in from outside the area.

 

These threads always bring out the best. Is a 23 Crowley not a DE because it has an outboard? Is a DE a heritage or an actual design attribute? I personally think it's the heritage, but we all have our own opinions. The new 25 Webbers Cove should be just as much as a DE as an old 60's Jonesporter.

 

The definition is a moving target as the fisheries evolve. Modern outboards muddy the water even more!

 

Downneast boat = A boat not owned by forum member Elmar

 

Take Nova Scotia. The province is even more down east than Maine, geographically, and probably culturally, too. Nevertheless, it is generally an unwinnable battle, and for some a grave taboo, to label the Cape Island Launch, of the Tory/Loyalist side of the Bay of Fundy, a "Downeast".

That the Frost/Lowell family, before developing the Jonesporter or Beals Island models, got their start in Digby, Nova Scotia, underscores how indefinite and multifarious the topic is. All of which just means a healthy pluralism, a suavity, for all of us, so long as we can keep from putting blood on the floor.

The drawing is of a 42-foot Cape Island Launch, by the late Samuel Manning.

 

Take Nova Scotia. The province is even more down east than Maine, geographically, and probably culturally, too. Nevertheless, it is generally an unwinnable battle, and for some a grave taboo, to label the Cape Island Launch, of the Tory/Loyalist side of the Bay of Fundy, a "Downeast".

That the Frost/Lowell family, before developing the Jonesporter or Beals Island models, got their start in Digby, Nova Scotia, underscores how indefinite and multifarious the topic is. All of which just means a healthy pluralism, a suavity, for all of us, so long as we can keep from putting blood on the floor.

The drawing is of a 42-foot Cape Island Launch, by the late Samuel Manning.

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That's a Novi Boat, another class off boats, with different variances,Cape Islander, PEI, Pugwash, they change the further east and up around the corner

 

So if you go buy location the years that the Mitchell Cove hulls where being built in Rockland they weren’t a DE?

 

The 36’ northern bay and the entire general marine line all not a downeast because built in southern maine? Much respect to the builders downeast but i dont think geographic location is the deciding factor. What about the thread with the guy in Europe building his own downeast. There are downeast boats and downeast style, a quick google image search should help define the two.

 

The lobstering pedigree is another way to
measure how “Downeast” a particular hull is. Back Cove, Sabre, and others like to say they are Downeast, but that is all marketing. Yet to see a 40 foot Sabre hauling and setting traps. And I am not talking 5 or 10 recreational traps either.