Bound Downeast from G&B
By Steve Myrick
Published: June 18, 2009
The 36-foot "lobster yacht" launched last Friday from the Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway yard is not named Neighborhood Bully because owners Joe and Felicity Weber wanted a bigger, tougher, or faster boat than anyone else in their home port of Southwest Harbor, Maine. Though it was partly motivated by their Maine neighbors, owners of a similarly designed powerboat from the G & B yard named Alliance, the Webers named their new boat Neighborhood Bully after the 1983 Bob Dylan song of the same name.
"Nobody could be righteous like Dylan," said Mr. Weber yesterday by phone. "There are two things that have always drawn me to the lobster boat. First is the classic lines: it's just beautiful. Second, it's a working boat. I did want pretty good speed, and they've hit it right on the head. The boat cruises at an easy 17 or 18 knots. It just ran like a dream."
Designed by Nat Benjamin, Neighborhood Bully is only the fourth powerboat built by the yard.
One of the Weber family's favorite adventures is whale watching, so among their specifications for the traditional lobster boat design were a hull and engine combination powerful enough to carry them to prime whale habitat in an hour or less. A 270 horsepower Cummins diesel powers Neighborhood Bully.
Saturday morning, Neighborhood Bully and crew shoved off for Southwest Harbor, and they made quick work of the passage, covering more than 200 nautical miles in only 14 hours.
