George hardy sold out.  Traps, buoys, permit and all to a nice fellow from Marblehead.

Weird seeing Marblehead across her stern but life goes on and at least she will continue lobstering.

This shot was taken just minutes before her final moments in the port of Gloucester after dozens of years in our fair port.

Here is a a story we documented about George Hardy and the Hard Bottom a couple of years ago in these pages which unfolded over the course of a week.-
July 23, 2008

Broken Davit On The Hard Bottom

So George Hardy set out to go lobstering yesterday afternoon and within hauling of the first couple of trawls he busted his davit.

A davit is the boom that hangs out over the boat with a pulley that the line goes through to pull the traps up onto the boat. It hangs out away from the boat so the traps dont gouge the boat on their way up over the rail.

The reason his davit broke was because when he went to haul his traps up from the ocean floor there were four other lobstermen’s trawls set over his. so when he went to lift his trawl up, the entanglement of four other lobstermen’s gear was being lifted at the same time. Apparently it was too much strain for his old wooden davit and it snapped.

This time of year the lobsters are in close to shore so all of the lobster gear is concentrated in a much smaller geographic area. It creates much tension among lobstermen fighting for prime lobster bottom.

The result for George was a davit that snapped in half. Not good.

George Hardy’s Second Broken Davit In Three Days

Here’s half of the broken davit on George Hardy’s boat The Hard Bottom.

George’s davit snapped from the strain of trying to get his lobster gear up from the bottom of the ocean floor while being entangled with the traps of four other fishermen. This is the second davit that has snapped in three days.

When the first one snapped he went and replaced it with a piece of pine (shown below). So he saved himself a few bucks by using the cheap scrap pine, but cost himself two days fishing due to the mechanical failure of the soft knotty pine used as a davit.

Adding to George’s frustrations on this particular day was the fact that his backman overslept so he had to go fishing alone.

 Here’s a picture from two days ago of broken Davit #1

George Hardy Dismantling Broken Davit #2

Posted on July 27, 2008 by Joey C

Hear George’s choice words as he disassembles the second broken davit aboard his boat in three days in the upcoming video at 9:00AM.

I’m hoping the next one he replaces the broken with is made out of something stronger than untreated pine.

George Hardy And Davit #3 Video

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Joey C

George Hardy Video Trial Click here

George Hardy With New Steel Davit

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Joey C

Hey George, you have no idea how happy I am that you decided to make the new davit out of steel instead of knotty pine. It was painful watching the frustration as you disassembled that second one. Video coming soon! Looks like the third time is a charm.